


Seven Deadly

by Whyareallthegoodnamesgone



Category: Bleach, D.Gray-man, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Naruto
Genre: F/F, F/M, Multi, Other, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-10
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-13 13:30:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 314,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11760900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whyareallthegoodnamesgone/pseuds/Whyareallthegoodnamesgone
Summary: This is the rewrite of my first fanfic, "Your Final Fantas/Kingdom Hearts/Others Experience" from Quizilla, finally with a proper title! You may already know the story or you may not, but either way this is going to be my original story in a whole new light. A new experience (if you will) with new features like non-bitchy Kairi, deleted awkward and forced, slightly creepy romance scenes, and-hopefully-error free reading!





	1. Chapter 1

**Introductions are for suckers.**

∞

It was moving day. For the first time in your life, you were going to be leaving the cold, hard city of Midgar behind. You walked through the bare, empty halls of your house into your room for one last look before saying goodbye to this place forever. Your bed was gone, the walls were stripped, the closet was empty, and everything had already been repainted white. It didn't even look like your room anymore, but this house hadn't felt like home to you in many years. The only thing left in the room was your duffle bag and an old family photo you found hidden in the back of your closet that the movers had missed.

You picked up the photo and sighed, looking down at your young, beaming face as you stood between your parents and older brother, Caius. You flipped the photo over and looked at the hand written message on the back. "≈≈≈≈≈≈'s 3rd birthday" was written in elegant cursive and signed with many x's and o's. You glared at the writing. It was his handwriting. You flipped it back over and began to carefully tear the picture so your father, Luxord Ballad, was cut out completely, leaving only your mother Leila, Caius, and you.

Your father had worked as a scientist in a special covert division of the ShinRa Electric Company's Mako research division. You didn't know much about his work, other than it was illegal and nearly all of his colleagues had been arrested as he had been, though illicit work activities were the least of his crimes. He had been an alcoholic gambler with anger management issues and an abusive streak. You weren't usually his target, but you had been enough times to still feel a pit of fear and anger form in your stomach at the sight of him. Around ten years ago, pressure from work and his other bad habits finally caused him to snap. He turned on your family, and in a rage tried to murder you and your bother while your mother was out shopping. Caius helped you hide in the attic, and that was the last you ever saw of him. Then your mother came home, there was a scuffle between them, and the neighbors called the police shortly after. Your father was taken away and charged with murdering your brother—though a body was never found—and the attempted murder of yourself and your mother. It was the last night you felt like you had a real family. After that night, Caius was gone, and your father had been taken into custody. You were sure there must have been some big trial process, but your mother did her damndest to keep you out of it. That night was the last time you saw either of the male members in your family.

Despite the terrible memories this house held for you and your mother, it had been your mother's house her whole life and she couldn't bring herself to leave it until now. She worked in the Inter-Planetary Embassies as a secretary, and one day met the Ambassador of Traverse Town, a seemingly nice man named Basch Strife, and fell for him almost instantly. They had dated in person and long distance for over two years now, and he finally asked your mother to marry him. With your blessing she agreed, and now you were on your way to move in with him and his son, Cloud, to their home in Traverse Town. It was supposedly a fairly small peaceful world, and would be quite the change from life in one of the busiest cities in the charted galaxy. But maybe it was just the kind of change of pace you needed.

Your new step-brother, Cloud, was a few years older than you were, but from all conversations you'd had with him, he seemed like a cool guy who was genuinely excited to have you as a sister. His father had apparently had a pretty rough life himself, and Cloud just wanted his father to be happy, much the same way you just wanted your mother to be happy. No matter what, the two of you agreed that you wouldn't be the reason for your parents not to find all the happiness in the world that they could.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈? Are you almost ready?" Your mother's voice called, pulling you from your thoughts as you stared at the photo of your real older brother. You wondered if Cloud would be anything like him...not that you could even remember very much about Caius.

"Yeah, just a second." You called back, grabbing your duffle and slinging it over your shoulder before taking one last look at you room and shutting the door.

"The taxi will be here any minute, muffin. Please hurry up!" She was terrified of flying—it was part of the reason why you had to stay put in Midgar all these years—and her stress was really starting to show.

"It's not like they're gonna leave without us." You called back as you walked into her room, where you thought she was. It was just as empty as yours was, with the exception of some old boxes in the corner containing your father's things that were going to be left behind and trashed. You walked over to them and dropped the ripped part of the old photograph with his image into one of the boxes, then pocketed the other half safely in your hoodie.

You heard faint honking coming from downstairs, followed by your mothers voice again, "≈≈≈≈≈! It's here."

"I noticed." You called back as you raced down the stairs and joined her by the front door. She looked you over and smoothed out your hair.

"You have everything, yes?" She asked, looking more nervous than you had ever seen her.

"Oh, wait I think I left my—" You jabbed a thumb over your shoulder, pointing back up the stairs.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈!" She scolded you, getting an exasperated look on her face.

You broke into a large smile, "Only joking. Would you relax?"

She sighed and pulled at the waist ties of her coat, "You're right. I'm sorry, muffin." The taxi out front honked again and she got a nervous look on her face again.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" You asked with a slight smirk, pulling open the front door and stepping out onto your dark porch. It was around midnight, though Midgar always had a dark and gloomy look to it. The ShinRa power company allowed for their factories to pump all of the Mako energy fumes out into the open, polluting the air and causing a kind of permanent smog that everyone just kind of put up with. If there was anything about Midgar you hated more than your father, it was ShinRa. You could see the tall towers from your doorstep, and you glared resentfully up at them as you made your way over to the curb where the cab was parked. You hoped this would be the last time you'd ever see them, but something in your gut told you you'd never be able to fully escape from them.

The driver got out and helped you put your duffle and your mother's suitcase inside before you slid into the backseat next to you mom. She looked out at the old house and seemed much sadder than you would have expected, but you realized it was more than just the house she was sad to leave. It was your whole life you were putting behind you. All of your friends and memories, both the good and the bad. You began to think about how you never really got to say goodbye to some of your best friends, and how you wished that you didn't have to leave so late at night. You were looking out at the dark city, when you heard your mother let out an anxious sigh.

"Excited?" You asked, trying to cheer her up.

"Of course, I'm just a little nervous about flying..." She said, and her hands began twisting around the ties of her coat again. You nodded, knowing she was terrified of gummi ships, despite them being the fastest and more comfortable way to travel between worlds.

After a few more minutes of driving, the cab pulled up to the spaceport outside of town. You got out and took your stuff from the back as you looked at the ship that was waiting at your platform. You walked over, forgetting about your mother completely as you stared up at the ship. A smile formed at your lips as you heard your mother groan at the thought of getting on.

"Come on, it's not that bad." You called to her from over your shoulder. You had only been on a gummi ship a handful of times for school field trips, but you loved them. The freedom, the speed, the views...you loved all of it.

The main hatch of the ship began to open, releasing the ramp that lead into the ship. It extended outward horizontally from the ship until it was a few feet above your head, making your mother shriek and you just turned to look at her with a look of thinly veiled mischief and stood your ground as the ramp began to lower until it landed inches away from your feet. If you were one step closer it would have hit you on the head and you both knew it. You laughed lightly at her cursing under her breath at you, her nerves turning her into an overbearing mother again.

"Oh come on, mom. " You grinned at her over your shoulder and she shook her head at you

"Hey now. No tormenting your dear ol' ma." A man with a twang of a southern accent said as an arm caught you in a headlock and started ruffling up your hair

"Cid, you let her go." Your mother scolded, walking up to him with a stern finger wag.

"If you insist." He said kneeing you in the back of the knee, making you stumble backwards. You landed on your butt on the ramp, but because of the incline you didn't really fall that far.

"Who the hell are you?" You asked, running a hand through your hair to get it out of your face again, only to have him muss it up even more when you were finished.

"I'm your new uncle, Cid Highwind." He said, smirking at your glare.

"Basch has a brother?" You asked, and he laughed.

"I'm not your literal uncle, but if you're related to the Strifes, you're related to me. Trust me, Fair's on board and I've already heard him going off. You're gonna need me." He gave your hair one last tussle then continued on his way to get the luggage from your mother.

"Son of a—" You began, trying to once again get your hair in order.

"≈≈≈≈≈, watch your language. You respect your new uncle." Your mother gave you swat to the back of your head as she passed you on her way up the ramp and into the ship. You watched her go, then decided that maybe getting up off the ground was a good idea.

"Seems like he's buckets of crazy." You mumbled, more to yourself than anyone, but you got an answer nonetheless.

"You get used to him."

You turned around at the vaguely familiar voice, but smiled instantly as you recognized the guy you were looking at to be Cloud.

"Hey, Cloud!" You looked him over beaming, adding, "You're taller than I thought you'd be."

He was around 6'1, with light blonde hair and clear blue eyes, wearing a black hoodie with a motorcycle on it and some ratty old jeans. "I could say the same thing about you." He said with an amused smile as you got to your feet and dusted yourself off.

"What are you doing here?" You asked, adjusting the strap of your duffle bag on your shoulder so it was more comfortable.

"Well when I heard they were sending Cid to pick you up, I thought I might tag along, make sure he doesn't ruin your opinion of all of us before we even get a chance to meet you." He held out a hand and offered to take the duffle for you, which you declined by shrugging to show it wasn't actually that heavy.

You laughed, "Well, I certainly appreciate the escort."

"Cloudy, what's the hold up?" An irritated voice called from just behind Cloud.

"Shouldn't you be prepping for take off?" Cloud called over his shoulder as an even taller boy with jet black hair made his way out of the ship and strutted lazily down the ramp. He was wearing a long-sleeved plain white t-shirt and some jeans with grass stains and the knee ripped out on one side.

"Who's that?" You asked, trying to peak around Cloud.

"No one special." Cloud said, shaking his head.

"No one special!" The new guy repeated, this time sounding overly offended. "You cut me Cloud. You cut me real deep. And here I'm just trying to—oh, hello. You must be ≈≈≈≈≈≈." He said, shoving past Cloud and extending a hand to you. You didn't know if it was just because of the incline of the ramp or what, but he was huge. He was at least 6'3 and totally jacked, yet he had a goofy smirk on his face that was...surprisingly charming. "I'm Zack." He held out his hand.

You looked up into his staggeringly beautiful blue eyes and got a small smirk yourself as you made to take his hand, "Nice to—" You began, but before you could take his hand, Cloud intercepted him and began squeezing Zack's hand in a death grip.

Zack's cheeks puffed up and he began straining as he tried to fight the pain, but Cloud wasn't letting up.

"Back off." Cloud threatened, getting a dangerous look in his eye.

"What?" Zack fussed, yanking his hand away.

"What do you mean 'what?' That's my sister."

"So?" Zack cradled his hand with a grumpy expression on his face, "I was just being friendly."

"Go be friendly to someone else's sister."

"How would you like me to introduce myself then? Should I punch her? Pull her hair, kick her teeth in?" Zack went off, and you couldn't help but laugh at them. Here were two big, strong, intense looking guys acting like 8 year olds.

"Well you could start by wiping that flirty look off your face."

"Flirty lo—I'll show you a flirty look," Zack warned, pushing back his sleeve and brandishing a fist at Cloud.

"Ooo, scary." Cloud taunted, shoving Zack back a step and leading the way up the ramp into the ship. This only caused Zack to turn into an even bigger child as he shoved Cloud out of the way and fought to get in front of him.

"Whatever. Ignore him, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. It's very nice to meet you." Zack said, trying to catch your attention as you followed Cloud onto the ship.

"Sure, you too." You nodded, though your attention had been stolen by the shiny interior of the gummi ship.

"Let me take your bag, make myself useful." He offered, and Cloud scoffed.

"Yeah, like that'll ever happen." He muttered under his breath.

"I can be helpful when I want to be."

"Since when?"

"Well, I never want to help you. Shocker, I know...you big jerk." Zack rolled his eyes, then he took the bag from off your shoulder and slung it over his own like it was nothing.

"Don't you have a girlfriend?" Cloud asked as he watched Zack put on his gentleman act and lead the way for you.

"What are you talking about?" Zack said, sounding offended.

"Cissnei?"

"What about her?" Zack shrugged dumbly.

"Aren't you two...?"

"No!"

Cloud snickered "Whadya do this time? Or were you not the guy running around telling everyone you sealed the deal and finally got yourself a girl?"

Zack got slightly pink in the face, "Well, turns out the deal wasn't as sealed as I thought. At the last minute I find out she's already agreed to go out with Angeal. Apparently, she wants a more mature man." He pouted, clenching his jaw and glaring at the floor as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"She doesn't think that you are mature?" You interjected, trying hard to keep from laughing.

"It's probably more the fact that he's an idiot." Cloud mumbled, and you laughed at the grumpy expression that formed on Zack's face.

"Don't worry, Zack, she'll come around." You gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder as you pushed passed him to get a look out the window of the ship.

"Well I don't want her now that—now that she's with Angeal." You weren't looking and missed the look that Cloud had shot him in the middle of his sentence.

"Why, what's wrong with Angeal?" You asked as you turned back to face them since there wasn't really anything exciting going on outside since the ship was still grounded in the spaceport.

"Nothing...if you're into big hairy man-apes with hidden girlfriend stealing agendas." Zack grumbled as you walked passed him into the back room of the ship to check it out.

You stopped at the doorframe and looked back at him, "You know, actually I am into big hairy guys. Especially if they're mature." You shot him smirk and his eye twitched. Zack couldn't decide if you were joking or not.

"What's wrong Fair, afraid of a little competition?" Cloud nudged him as he pushed passed him to join you in the back room.

"Competition?" You both repeated in unison. You were vaguely surprised, and Zack sounded more like he was accepting a challenge. You looked over at Zack as if to ask if he even knew what he had just said, but he just smiled at you and shrugged.

"I have to put my stuff away." You said as you grabbed your duffle from him and turned away, feeling your face heat up. Boys didn't normally make you nervous; your best friend from home was a boy...but this? This was just ridiculous. No one had really ever just openly flirted with you like this. That you knew of...flirting wasn't exactly your strong suit, and to be perfectly honest it went right over your head most of the time.

"What in tarnation are you doing standing around like a slack-jawed idiot?" Cid yelled, whacking Zack upside the head with his hand. "Get to work." Zack sighed and scurried off towards the front of the ship, and Cid turned to Cloud, "And you, why aren't you helping this poor girl with her things? Come on, you were raised to be a gentleman." Cloud also got a swat to the back of the head, which he took with a bored look on his face like this happened all the time.

As Cloud took your bag and headed into the back room, Cid walked over and put an arm around you as he showed you around the ship, "This is the bridge, or the operating room," he said, and you noted the control panel and all the brightly colored buttons and nobs flashing. You saw Zack was on the ground fiddling with some wires under the steering unit. "The adults will be staying up here while you kiddies sit in that back room there." Cid explained, and you saw your mom sitting in one of the chairs up by the controls looking extremely uncomfortable. She was trying to distract herself by making pleasant small talk with Zack, but they had somehow gotten onto the subject of chocobos, so you knew that conversation was going no where fast.

You went into the back room, which consisted of a row of beds along one wall and a small sitting area in front of a large window, and saw that Cloud was already inside sitting down on one of the comfortable looking armchairs. You joined him, and soon enough Cid popped his head in and told you that everything was ready for take off. Zack then entered the room shortly after and plopped down opposite Cloud.

"So, are you the maintenance boy or something?" You asked, wondering why Zack was here, exactly. Not that you really minded, but he was kind of crashing your bonding time with Cloud.

"Hardly..." Cloud scoffed.

"You could say that." Zack shrugged.

"He saw a picture of you and insisted on coming." Cloud said boredly, resting his chin on his fist as he gave Zack a very tried look.

"Cloud!" Zack snapped quickly, then he cleared his throat and put on a composed face as he turned to you, "I just wanted to meet the new addition to the Strife family. I had to see for myself if it was true they were finally letting someone good looking into that big old house of yours." He even winked, to Cloud disgust which he made known by groaning.

You hid your face—and blush—by pulling off the hoodie you had been wearing and getting up to put it with the rest of your things.

"Shut up Zack." Cloud said, closing his eyes.

"And I also volunteered to be your tour guide once we land." Zack continued.

"Tour guide?" You sighed, looking back at the two of them with a disgruntled expression. You didn't want to have to be toured around.

"That's right, I'm going to show you all around our beloved little Traverse Town." He beamed at you.

"A tour...with Zack...all day long...all alone...the more I think about this, the less I like it." Cloud said crossing his arms.

"And just what do you mean by that?" Zack huffed.

"I mean I might just want Yuffie to tag along."

Zack scoffed and you looked around at the two of them, "Who's Yuffie?"

"A date's worst nightmare." Zack muttered, and Cloud scratched his cheek, thankfully not hearing Zack.

"Well maybe not Yuffie."

"Oh come on, you don't trust me?" You asked, elbowing him lightly as you returned to your seat next to him.

"Of course I trust you. It's him you gotta watch out for." He was eyeing Zack, who then turned on the puppy eyes.

"Come on man! I've been your best friend since diapers, do you honestly think that I would-"

"Yes!" Cloud interrupted.

"Well, I am insulted." He said crossing his arms.

"Fine, be insulted. You're not getting my sister."

"Who says I need a guide anyway?" You mused, thinking it might be more fun just to go exploring.

"Well you can only wander around for so long without getting lost." Zack said. "It's no Midgar, but it's bigger than you'd think."

"Besides, your mother tells me you have a terrible sense of direction." Cloud said rather mischievously.

"Don't listen to her. She doesn't know what she's talking about." You deadpanned. "16 years in Midgar and I never got lost once."

"Yeah, well the streets are numbered and everything's on a grid there." He rolled his eyes.

"Shut it." You blew your bangs out of your eyes, not expecting him to know that.

"Come on Cloudy, we don't need a babysitter." Zack half-begged.

Cloud sighed, "Okay, fine, I won't give you a babysitter. I'll just have a...friendly tour assistant go with you."

"Have I told you lately that I hate you?"

"I still don't get why I need a tour." You sighed.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure its tons of fun for you." Zack said quickly.

Cloud chuckled. "Not if our little friend has anything to say about it." He stood up and walked over to the window, pulled out his phone and scrolled through it. Zack stood up and walked over to him, trying to get a look at who he was texting.

"Why don't you just come yourself?" You asked Cloud, getting up yourself, thinking that now another person was going to be dragged into your little tour.

"I have to go make sure everything is alright with your enrollment, I'll catch up with you sometime in the afternoon."

"Why do you have to go? Can't my mom go, or your dad?"

"They're taking off just as soon as your mom gets your stuff to the house. They're going out looking for the perfect world to plan their wedding on.

"Well, maybe I could just go with you to the school?"

"You want to go to school rather than spend time with me?" Zack fussed.

"I don't want to go to the school, I want to spend time with my brother." You explained and Cloud ruffled your hair.

"There's plenty of time for that later. Let me do the boring stuff, then I promise we'll hang out after."

"Alright." You nodded, then Zack sprang up to his feet.

"So then, about our date—"

"Tour." Cloud snapped. "Three person tour."

A voice then came over the intercom, saying, "Why don't you kiddies get some rest, we're not going to be there for a while. Someone forgot to bring along some extra fuel, so we can't warp our way there."

"Hey old man, it's not my fault! You didn't tell me to bring any extras!" Zack yelled back. The ship really wasn't so big that Cid needed to use the intercom, but that didn't stop him.

"No one said it was your fault, Fair!" Cid yelled back.

"You just did!"

"Pop a squat and shut up. Before I make you shut up." Cid bellowed.

"At any rate," Cloud said, getting to his feet. "He's right, we should sleep." The room had four beds in it, already made and comfy looking.

"Dibs!" you and Zack both yelled at the same time, rushing for the middle left bed.

"Well it looks like we're just going to have to share." He smirked and wiggled his eyebrows at you. Cloud chucked the shoe he just took off at Zack, nailing him in the back of the head.

"You learn to ignore him, too." Cloud said, laying back and rolling over. You were about to get up out of bed when Zack popped up and hopped into he bed to the right of you, Cloud in the leftmost.

It had maybe been a half and hour, and you heard Zack start to snore lightly, and you rolled over to face Cloud, who was now staring up at the ceiling.

"Hey Cloud?" You whispered quietly.

"Yeah?" he asked, looking over at you.

"Who did you have in mind for the whole 'friendly tour assistant' thing?"

"Hmm...well I was only joking, but Zack seems to have taken and interest in you so I might have someone else tag along."

"Got anyone special in mind?" You got up onto your elbows, getting excited at the prospect of meeting new people.

"You don't know him."

"Oooo, it's a him?"

"Don't get too excited. He's a bit of stick in the mud."

"I don't care. Just gimme a name!"

"Fine, but you have to promise not to tell Zack."

"It wouldn't be any fun if I did." You said with a nod.

"His name is Zexion. He's a bit of a quiet guy, and doesn't exactly run in the same circle as Zack, but I'm sure you'll like him just fine. Maybe it will show you that not everyone from this town is as crazy as Zack and Cid."

You smiled and settled backdown into bed, hugging your pillow happily. You had a clean slate and a newlife ahead of you. You were almost too excited to sleep, but the gentle lull of the ships interior and the gentle rocking sensation of the ships movements eventually put you to sleep.

∞

**To old readers, please let me know what you think of the rewrite, and to new readers...please don't go read the original...its pretty bad. Hopefully this is much better in quality, but I guess that's really up to your matter of opinion. I'll probably never be satisfied with it, so maybe I'm not the best person to be talking about this even though it's mine.**

**¯\\_(ツ)_/¯**

**Hope you enjoyed!**


	2. Chapter 2

**∞**

Sooner than you would have liked, someone began calling your name.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, time to wake up." You felt the hair that had fallen over your face being brushed away by rough, warm fingers. "≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." You figured if you just ignored the voice it would go away. "Come on sleeping beauty, before I give you kiss."

You made a face and sat up in bed, then began rubbing your eyes. "That's creepy, Zack." You mumbled as you lazily opened your eyes and found that he was kneeling by your bedside.

"Well, looks like someone's not a morning person." He said in a cheery voice, not phased at all.

"It's a little too early for all this..." You yawned, brushing your fingers through your hair.

"It's almost noon." He chuckled.

You stretched your arms above your head and sighed contently "And I was having the best dream too."

"What about?" He asked, hopping up and sitting at the foot of your bed.

"About you, of course." You said, opening your eyes and smiling at him lazily.

His interest picked up, "Is that so? What happened?"

You hummed reminiscently, "Hmmm, it was absolutely wonderful." You reached behind you for the pillow and pulled it into your lap.

"Well, go on then." He sat cross-legged and leaned in eagerly to hear all the details.

"Well, it started with you—leaving me the hell alone!" You growled, bashing him over the head with the pillow before laying back down and cuddling into the blankets again.

"That's it!" Zack grabbed you, blankets and all, and yanked you out of the bed bridal style.

"Zack!" You gasped, and you heard Cloud call out his name too.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Zack jumped at Cloud's sudden appearance in the doorframe, and you slipped out of his grip and fell to the floor. He made to catch you, but just got fistfuls of blankets. You landed on your ass with a thud, and you growled "Ow!" as you slammed your fist down on Zack's foot for dropping you.

He quickly grabbed you around the waist and pulled you up to your feet again with a sheepish look on his face. "Sorry, I'm..." he pulled the blanket off you to free you from it, then made to smooth out your hair again all the while you glared mercilessly at him. "...sorry..." He added again sheepishly.

"How about we maintain a three foot rule?" Cloud suggested as he put a hand on Zack's shoulder and began to squeeze it tightly, causing Zack to whimper out a chorus of 'owowow!' as he pulled him back a few feet away from you.

"Hey kiddies, landing time. Find a place to buckle in." Cid's voice came over the intercom, and Cloud let go of Zack and moved over to lead you to the chairs out on the bridge where your mom and Cid were. Zack walked off, saying something about checking the engine room before landing.

You sat down and strapped yourself in one of the seats, and Cloud sat beside you. "So where were you during my wake up call?" You asked him.

"I was making a call to your babysitter." He said as Zack came into the room.

"All ready for landing, take us into the dock." He said sitting down.

"The dock? There's no landing station?" you asked, dumbfounded.

Zack and Cloud just laughed at you.

"Oh, city folk." Zack mused.

"Traverse Town is just a little bit too small for all that." Cloud said as Cid landed the ship.

"Hey Cloud, just who the hell is coming with us?" Zack said, trying to remain calm in his tone, but clearly irritated.

"You'll see." Cloud shrugged with a smug look on his face.

"I hate you sometimes."

"It's what you get for...you know what? Never mind. I'm just gonna take it all in." Cloud looked so pleased with himself.

"Enjoy it while it lasts." Zack mumbled under his breath.

"Oh believe me, I will." Cloud somehow heard him anyway.

"≈≈≈≈, do you know who it is?"

"Only by name." you replied.

"What is it? Who is it? Come on, come on, come on! Tell me!"

"Someone's overeager." You smirked.

"He's just upset he has to be watched." Cloud said, catching Zack's eyes.

"Shut. Up." Zack snapped.

The ship landed with a bit of a jolt, "Alright kiddies, we're here." Cid said, and you got up and walked out to the ramp to exit the ship.

"Thanks for the ride old man." Zack said, about to follow you down the ramp, when Cid called him back.

"ZACK! Get your ass back in here and help unpack, then you can refuel, then wash this puppy up, then give her a good vacuuming."

"Ooo, sorry, I'd love to help, but I have to give little ≈≈≈≈ here a tour, you'll just have to get Gippal to do it."

"Fine then, CLOUD! You get 'er done." He said.

"What? You have got to be kidding me. Absolutely not."

"It needs doing son, don't worry, I'll get Gippal to join in later, I'll even pay you."

"What? You never pay me!" Zack huffed.

"That's because you don't do a good job. Just get going, before I change my mind." Cid threatened.

"This is bullshit." You heard Cloud mumble as you and Zack exited the ship.

"So who's Gippal?" you asked as you both walked down the ramp.

"Only my best frieeeend." Zack said in a goofy voice. You laughed and he smiled saying "You'll meet him soon enough, I'm sure. He's a big tall blonde guy. Real tan, probably covered in car grease."

"Okay then." You said, taking in your first look at Traverse Town. The houses were made of stone and wood and the sun was shining brightly. It was nothing like Midgar, and that was just fine by you. It was a new town full of new people. It was like having a clean slate after years of wasting away in dingy Midgar. 

You were pulled from your musings by the sight of  a guy sitting on a crate that was nearby reading a book. He lowered the book and stood up. He had bluish-sliver hair that covered one of his eyes, and was dressed in a black t-shirt under a dark green jacket with some ripped gray skinny jeans and faded converse.

"Are you ≈≈≈≈≈≈?" He asked, tucking his book under his arm.

"At your service." You replied, smiling brightly at him.

"On the contrary, I am at your service. If I'm not mistaken, Cloud asked me to join you on your tour of the city to make sure  _someone"_ He shot a venomous look at Zack, "doesn't get you into any trouble."

"That must make you Zex—"

"Zexion! What? Does Cloud even talk to you?" Zack grumble, rubbing the back of his head.

"Fair." Zexion rolled his eyes, not that he was expecting a friendlier greeting from him.

"Zexy." Zack said, matching Zexion's tone of displeasure.

You could tell by this little exchange that this was going to be an interesting tour.

"Well, it's nice to meet you!" You cut the tension in the air by turning to Zexion and offering him your hand.

"It is?" Zack mumbled from somewhere behind you, but you both ignored him.

"You too...though I wish it were under better circumstances." He shot a glare at Zack who glared right back at him.

"Hey, so what's this way?" You chose to ignore their foul attitudes towards each other again, and made your way down the street that lead into town.

"The First District is this way, if you just keep going straight." Zexion explained, and soon enough you came to an open square where there were a few shops and a restaurant. "And you can get to the Fountain Plaza and the Third District through there, and the Second District entrance is up there." He pointed everything out to you and you spun around slowly to take it all in.

"So you guys use a district system here too? Midgar uses sectors, but I'm sure it's the same idea." You shrugged.

You began to wander around, and Zack and Zexion quickly started going at it again. You decided to just let them have at each other if that's what they really wanted, and you continued walking along on your own. You made your way to the entrance of the Second District, and looked around to see if the boys were coming. There were trudging along slowly, in a heated argument, so you decided to go on without them.

You walked into D2, and did another spin to check things out. There were some more shops, a hotel, maybe some offices, and then a staircase leading down to an open plaza where a small fountain sat. You wandered down to it and admired the stained glass artwork and looking at all the coins lining the fountain floor.

You sat down to wait for the boys, and dipped your hand into the chilly water. You had just gotten comfortable when someone yelled, "Look out!"

Because of the rumbling water you hadn't heard the sound of something rolling towards you, and you whipped around just in time to see two boys on skateboards headed your way. The one in the lead was flailing his arms out widely as his board went way too fast, and his helmet had slipped down over his eyes and prevented him from seeing anything. "Move!" The boy behind him called out to you, he was racing desperately to catch up to the first boy, but it was too late.

The first boy collided with you, sending the two of you toppling into the fountain. It was fairly shallow, and while you were sure you were going to get a few bruises from the boy plowing into you, you knew you weren't injured.

"Brilliant..." You mumbled to yourself, holding your sopping wet hair away from your face.

"Oh shit, are you—shit!" The other boy skidded to a stop and threw off his helmet revealing spiky blonde hair and wide, panicked blue eyes, before running into the fountain after you. "Are you okay? I'm so, so, so fucking sorry." The blonde boy said, putting his hands on your shoulders to help you sit upright, and then brushing the wet hair out of your eyes so he could check if you were okay, "Oh shit, you're bleeding. Damn it Sora!" He slapped the water so it splashed the other boy as he popped upright and yanked off his helmet looking dizzy.

"Sorry about that! And sorry about him. He gets a potty mouth when he's nervous." The other boy, Sora, said cheerfully as he rubbed his jaw. You were pretty sure that's what collided with your head and caused whatever bleeding the blonde boy was talking about.

"Of course I'm nervous! You just clobbered the hell out of her, and she's fucking bleeding!" He looked back at you, completely loosing it as he turned your head to the side so he could see the cut above your eyebrow.

"I'm fine." You took his hands to stop him from fussing over you, though truth be told you were a little dizzy still, "Really. It's just a scratch."

"What the hell are you two doing to her?" Zack seethed, grabbing the boy who rammed you by the back of his shirt and lifting him out of the water. He shrugged, chuckled nervously, and apologized sheepishly.

"Zack! I'm so sorry! It was an accident, I was teaching him to ride, and we didn't think anyone was over here and—"

"Roxas, shut up." Zack sighed. There was no dealing with him when he was like this.

"Don't apologize to him." Zexion snapped, gesturing at you still sitting in the fountain looking dazed.

"He doesn't know how to stop, and he's really clumsy, and I really didn't think anyone was here, I thought it was safe too come here, and now, well you're bleeding and...and you're all wet, and—"

"Roxas, Right?" You cut him off, and he bit his lip and nodded. "I'm fine." You began to get to your feet, pulling him up with you. You wobbled a bit, and he steadied you with a nervous look on his face, and you held onto his shoulder as he led you to the edge of the fountain and helped you out. "There, see? Good as new." You held out your arms to show there really wasn't a mark on you, just a lot of water.

"But your forehead..." He began, puling the white long sleeve that was under the band t-shirt he was wearing and using it to wipe away the water and blood from the fresh cut on you. "Where's Ven when you need him?" He mumbled, biting his lip again.

Zexion walked over and pulled out a mini med kit from his back pocket, and placed a band aid gingerly over the cut. You turned to Roxas and smiled, "All better."

"Hey, I'm really sorry." Sora, the boy Zack was holding said.

"Oh, no worries I'm fine. Just wet."

"So who are you anyway? I don't think I've seen you around. You new?" Roxas asked, fishing Sora's skateboard out of the water as Sora struggled to free himself from Zack's grip.

"She is. This is Cloud's sister, so play nice, or deal with him."

"Don't listen to him. I'm ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. Nice to meet you." You said while wringing out your hair. When you finished you held out your hand for him.

"Roxas, though you already know that." He gave an embarrassed smile and took your hand.

"I'm Sora. Sorry again." Sora said, offering you his hand. Then he brightened up as an idea struck him, "Hey I know, you're going to be living here and going to school now right? I'll make it up to you tomorrow! I'll bring you a special treat for lunch, okay?"

"It's really okay—"

"Just take him up on this, it'll be easier." Roxas sighed.

You smiled and nodded, "Okay then. I'll be expecting it."

"You got it."

"Hey, maybe we can talk again...you know, under better circumstances." Roxas said as he rubbed the back of his neck.

You laughed and shot Zexion a look, "Why does everyone seem to think we're meeting under terrible circumstances?"

"Probably because things like Fair's attitude and fountain diving keep happening." Zexion offered and you laughed again.

"Well I think it's all going  _swimmingly._ "

Roxas groaned at your pun, but at least Sora laughed.

Zack then grabbed you, and began to walk off with you. "Sorry kids, but we're on an important mission right now." He said, not even turning to look at them.

"Mission?" Sora questioned as you got further away.

"Alright..." Roxas sighed, feeling like an idiot.

"Goodbye then." Sora waved.

∞

"Will you both slow down?" Zexion called, trailing behind you and Zack. You two had been talking, and arguing and laughing, and didn't really notice Zexion falling behind.

"Sorry." You apologized, stopping and waiting.

"It's not your fault, he could come up here and join our conversation, but then he never really talks to anyone."

"That's not true, I don't talk to you because I don't like you."

"Makes sense to me." You said.

Zack turned to you, "Just what is that supposed to mean?"

"I only meant you're two very different people. And if I was him, I wouldn't talk to you either."

"Well thanks a lot." He said, turning his back on you.

You laughed and jumped up on his back, piggyback style, saying "You could be nicer to him, it wouldn't kill you, you know." He began to spin around, causing you to cling tightly to him.

"I think it would actually,  _literally_  kill me."

"Only because I would kill him for trying." Zexion rolled his eyes.

"Hey, come on. We've got places to go, people to see." You kick your heels into Zack like he was a horse.

"Yeah, yeah, alright. Let's go."

~~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~~~

"Well...she was pretty." Sora sighed contently.

"Yeah, too bad we looked like idiots." Roxas said in a bitter sarcastic tone.

"Speak for yourself." Sora said confidently as he tried to put his helmet back on.

"You knocked her into a fountain...how could you possibly think that went well?" Roxas grumbled as he pulled on his own helmet and hopped onto his board again.

"She made a pun Rox. It's a sign. Destiny." Sora explained as he tried to catch up with his brother.

Roxas laughed, "Yeah, okay. Just try not to kill her next time you meet her."

"So...≈≈≈≈≈≈≈'s a pretty name." Sora said, sounding dreamy.

"Does your brain just not have a filter?" Roxas rolled his eyes.

"Oh come on, admit it. You liked her too."

"Sure, she seems...nice." He shrugged.

"Yeah, she's  _nice._  That's why you went into psycho spaz mode."

"I went into psycho spaz mode because you tried to drown her!"

"Keep telling yourself that." Sora said smugly. "I know a crush when I see one."

"Yeah? Well so do I." Roxas shot him a look, to which Sora just shrugged. He scoffed, "I'm not having this conversation with you. Would you just come on? We're gonna be late."

~~~~~~~~Back to you~~~~~~~~

"And this over here is the library, where the boring weirdos like Zexion hang out."

"I like the library." You argued.

"Like I said, weirdos like Zexion." Zack chuckled.

"Like who?" You asked poking your head over his shoulder, he was still giving you a piggyback ride. The guy had endurance, you had to give him that much.

"Guys like Genesis and Vincent. Not particularly nice, chatty people. The library's not the most fun place to be."

"Just because you don't know how to read past a third grade level...philistine." Zexion started.

"Hey—"

"Tell me about them." You interrupted, trying to keep them from fighting.

"Well Vincent kinda hangs out with everyone. Yuffie has a crush on him so he'll hang out with us occasionally."

"And Genesis?"

"Total bookworm."

"Shut up Zack. Genesis is the son of the library owner, and Vincent is actually very good friends with Cloud."

"Could we go in and meet them?" You asked, "You know, if they're in there?"

"Come on ≈≈≈≈." Zack whined.

"No you come on, I wanna get to meet everyone sooner rather then later." 

He gave you his best puppy eyes, but you were adamant.

"What do you think Zexy?"

You heard him groan at Zack's calling him that yet again, but he said, "It sounds fine to me."

"Right then." You said, jumping off Zack's back and going up the steps to the main entrance, you reached for the door but it was locked. Zack followed you up, but stopped when his phone went off.

"Hello? Yeah, she's fine. Cloud! Come on, I didn't....I'll be right back ≈≈≈≈≈≈." He said walking off. You looked back at Zexion, who's phone also went off.

"Hello? Yes, Cloud...Zack? You made him three way call me? No, I mean, everything's fine...hold on a moment." He said to you and walked off as well.

With nothing better to do, you tried the door again. As it was 5 seconds ago, it was still locked. You turned and leaned your back against it, sighing and waiting for Cloud to finish with his check up on the boys. The door suddenly swung open and nailed you in the back.

"Oh, my apologies, I didn't see you there." A smooth male voice said. You turned around and saw a tall boy with reddish brown hair and light gray-blue eyes, wearing a red leather jacket. He had a book in his hand and it was obvious he was reading while walking and didn't see you until he hit you with the door.

"Oh, no I'm sorry. That was a bad place to stand." You rubbed the back of your head and smiled sheepishly at him.

"I don't believe we've met before. I'm Genesis." He returned your small smile and held out his hand.

"We haven't, it's my first day here. My mother is marrying Cloud's father." You explained, figuring he knew who Cloud was, and took his hand.

"Oh, I see. So then you must be the famous ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." He said, looking at you with new interest.

"Famous ≈≈≈≈≈?" You laughed nervously, tucking a stray bit of wet hair behind your ear, suddenly feeling a little awkward at the thought that everyone here just happened to know way more about you than you did them, "Uh-oh. What's Cloud been saying about me?"

"Nothing bad, he just likes talking about you. He seems very fond of you. We've all been very excited to meet you."

You were about to say something, when you suddenly started coughing.

"Though...might I ask why you're soaking wet?" He asked, wondering if maybe you were getting sick from walking around in the chilly afternoon air with wet clothes and hair.

"Oh...well, I just met Sora and his skateboard and—"

"Say no more." He held up a hand, understanding completely that there was some kind of incident only Sora could conjure up. "Would you hold this?" He asked as he handed you his book and shrugged out of his jacket. He had on a maroon cashmere sweater under the jacket, which he pulled off to reveal a gray t-shirt underneath. He then took his book and jacket back and pulled it on, then handed you the sweater, explaining, "Before you catch a cold."

You felt the soft, warm fabric and you flushed lightly, "Oh, no, I-I couldn't." You tried to give it back to him, but he wouldn't take it.

"I insist." His smile widened as you thanked him and pulled it on.

"I'll return it to you as soon as possible." You said, and he shook his head.

"Not necessary. Now, were you interested in coming into the library? We're closed, technically, but since it's your first day here..." He offered, and you looked back at Zexion and Zack, who were all yammering away on the phone.

"Well, maybe just a peek." You agreed, and he pulled out his keys and held open the door for you.

"So, what kind of books you like?" He asked as he followed you in.

"I can find something I like about anything, really. Romance, poetry, coming of age, you name it." You shrugged, marveling at the rows and rows of books. "Oh _, Loveless_!" You gasped, seeing a small leather bound book sitting on a circle table that was resting between the rows.

"You've read it?" Genesis asked, getting a bemused smile on his face as he hung back and watched you eye the book with great interest.

"No, never, but I want to. There are streets named after it in Midgar, and plays. I've heard it's beautiful, but I've never been able to get my hands on a copy." You picked it up and ran your hand over the soft leather and felt letters of the cover, then opened it up to the first page. You saw the name 'Genesis Rhapsodos' written in elegant letters in the top corner. "Oh...this is your copy, isn't it?" You asked trying to hand it over to him.

"You can borrow it, if you'd like. I'd be happy to let you read it." Again he refused to take something back from you.

"I'm going to start to get the impression you're trying to spoil me." You said, setting the book back on the table despite him.

"My, my. Teach me to be kind to strangers." He smiled and you laughed.

"I'm sorry, I just can't accept this. It looks expensive."

"Genny, what are you doing?" Zack asked, sounding grumpy. You looked around Genesis and saw that the phone conversation must have ended and Zack had come in to get you.

"Oh, Zack...hello." Genesis said very unenthusiastically, not even bothering to look at Zack.

"Genesis, what's going on?" A deep male voice asked, coming around from the row of books behind you

"Oh, sweet god no." Zack sighed, and you turned to see a very, very large man with dark hair.

"Who's this?" He asked, nodding a gesture at you

"Here we go." Zack groaned.

"Hi, I'm ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." You said.

"I'm Angeal, a pleasure to meet you." He held out his hand for you.

"Oh, so you're Angeal." Your eyes widened in realization and you shot a grin at Zack.

Zack grabbed his hand instead and said, "This is Cloud's little sister."

"Oh, so you're  _that_  ≈≈≈≈≈≈." Angeal nodded, as if he suddenly recognized you. 

"Seriously, someone tell me what he's been saying about me." You sighed. 

"Genesis, Angeal, good to see you." Zexion said, walking over to where you were all congregated.

"Zexion, what are you doing with Zack?" Genesis asked, looking genuinely surprised.

"Cloud asked me to tag along with him while he shows ≈≈≈≈≈≈ around."

You rubbed the back of your head, embarrassed that you had to be lead around town and babysat at the same time.

"Perhaps you would like to stay here, and I'll take your place?" Angeal offered.

"Would you? I'm so sick of Fair." Zaxion said, though there was something about his mischievous look that told you he knew about Zack and Angeal's recent relationship problems.  

"Oh come on Zex, you don't mean that." Zack fussed, trying desperately to avoid having Angeal tag along.

Zexion looked at you, asking for your input.

"Please, stay here if you'd like. I'd hate to make you do something you don't want on your last day of vacation." You told him, and he nodded.

"Thank you. And goodbye, I suppose."

"Come on, let's go." Zack began to pull you towards the door, then he noticed the sweater you were wearing, "Oh we are definitely leaving."

"I suppose I will see you some time in the future then. Until next time." Genesis said as you turned back to look at him while Zack pulled you towards the door and Angeal followed while whistling.

Zexion walked over to a table and sat down sighing.

"What's wrong?" Genesis asked sitting down across from him, spinning the copy of Loveless under his fingers as he looked at Zexion.

"That was the worst morning I've had in a long time."

"How so? You spent it with a very lovely girl. I'm a little jealous, honestly."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈ is great, sure, but...I don't think I've ever met anyone more annoying than Zack Fair."

"That's true. Well it couldn't have been that bad."

"It was pretty bad. We lost her within the first 5 minutes, and found her in a fountain with the Rostar twins." Zexion rubbed his temples.

"She's interesting, at least." Genesis shrugged.

"She is going to school with us. But she is a grade below us."

"So she's a sophomore?"

"Yes, but she seems smart. She might just be in a few of our classes."

"Well then, that's something to look forward to."

"Not if Fair's there. You could drown a toddler in his drool." He scoffed.

"Charming." Genesis shook his head.

∞

"Shall we get going then?" Angeal asked as he finally caught up with you since you pulled your hand away from Zack, tired of him pulling you.

"Yeah, Zack said we could go to the marketplace next." You nodded.

"The market? Right this way then." He said, walking down the stairs of the library. Zack sighed and put his hands behind his head.

"What's wrong with you?" You asked, looking at Zack.

"Does he really have to come?"

"Cloud would be mad if he didn't." You shrugged.

He sighed again. "Fine..."

"He seems perfectly nice to me." You said in a hushed tone.

"Well we were 'friends' a few years ago, and I use the term very loosely, but then he stole my girlfriend only to break up with her a week later."

"At least he broke up with her, that must mean something."

"He didn't do it because of me." He scoffed.

"Oh come on. It's not like he actually stole her. If she left you, she must have had her own reasons."

"Thanks." He drawled bitterly at you.

"I'm just saying." You shrugged. "You can't blame it all on him."

"Oh, I do. For all my girlfriends"

"You know, you're surprisingly bitter."

"Takes one to know one." He shot back at you.

"How many girlfriends is that, by the way?"

"Why? Jealous?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Whatever." You shrugged walking up ahead to Angeal. 

"You two," He laughed,  "You both seem like little puppies to me."

"Sorry?" You laughed.

"Well there's Zack, he's always been as restless as a little puppy, and you...you're just as bad as he is. Listen to you taunting him."

"Just take that as a compliment." Zack huffed, pretending like he wasn't listening apparently getting too hard.

"So, how long have you known each other?"

"Since he was three."

"Oh. That's a long time."

"I guess." Angeal shrugged, "Most of us have lived here for practically our whole lives."

"And how many girls has he dated in all the time?" You asked, and Zack suddenly started coughing like he choked on thin air.

Angeal laughed loudly, much to Zack's dismay. "Honestly? He flirts a lot, but serious girlfriend? One or two, maybe."

You looked back at Zack, giggling. He talked a big game, but you knew Angeal would tell the truth about him.

"What about you?" Angeal asked turning suddenly. So suddenly that you rammed into him.

"That's a little personal don't you think?" You flushed wildly, feeling completely put on the spot.

"You just asked him, it's only fair." Zack butted in.

"Well...a lady never tells." You crossed your arms stubbornly.

"She's stalling." Angeal grinned.

"Maybe she's the real player here." Zack smirked.

"Hey." You hit him in the arm.

"Well, out with it." Zack urged you.

"Hold on, what about you?" you asked Angeal.

"6." He said rather confidently.

"Slut." Zack mumbled, causing you to chuckle slightly.

"Shut up Zack. Now tell us. How many?"

"I can't its...embarrassing." You looked away from them, but Zack just scoffed.

"What, the number's that high?"

"Fine, if you must know, zero, nada, zip. Happy now?" You were completely red in the face and walking ahead of them briskly to keep them from seeing.

"Well, I'm not unhappy." Zack admitted, and Angeal whacked him upside the head. The two began arguing shortly after that, and you ducked down an alleyway to get away from them while you tried to make your blush die down.

You turned some corners, then wound up looking into some kind of garage workshop or something, where a tall, tan blonde guy was toying with a wrench on his belt while he read some paper work. You didn't know why you just stood there staring at him, but he suddenly spoke.

"You know, a picture would last longer." He said, not looking up from the paper.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to stare, it's just...are you Gippal?" You asked, thinking back to Zack's description of him.

That got his attention. He looked up and gave you a puzzled look, clearly not recognizing you in the slighetest, "Well...yeah. Who are you? I don't think I've seen you before."

"Yeah, you wouldn't have. I'm ≈≈≈≈≈≈. It's my first day. "

"A newbie huh? I might just have to give you the grand tour."

"Sorry Gippal, I've got the tour covered." Zack said walking up beside you.

"Zack, buddy, where've you been?" Gippal greeted, suddenly getting a wide smirk on his face.

"Midgar, to pick up this one." He nodded at you, "Say Gips, wanna help me out, I'm kinda stuck with Angeal. Care to tag along?"

"As super fun as that sounds, I'm gonna have to say no. 'Sides I'm meeting Axel and Reno here in 5."

"Axel and Reno?" You asked.

"They're some friends of ours." Gippal explained.

"Can we wait for them?" You begged Zack.

"I guess, I wouldn't mind being with people I actually like for a change."

"Hey, where'd Angeal go?" You asked, and Zack got an evil look in his eyes.

"Zack?" Gippal pressed, knowing all to well their relationship issues. 

"I told him to head out toward the 8th district, thought he'd be gone for a while going that way."

"You're terrible. He's perfectly nice."

"Yeah, to you." Zack scoffed. 

"That's Zack for you, our little trouble maker." Gippal said, catching him in a headlock.

After a few minutes of chatting, you decided that Gippal—crazy as he seemed—was one of your favorite people in Traverse town. He was hilarious, and could put Zack in his place as quickly as Cloud could with twice the style.

"Well, well, well, just who do we have here?"

"Don't tell me one of you losers actually managed to get a girl." The two voices were very similar. You suddenly found yourself being circled by two tall redheads.

"Knock it off guys," Zack warned. "She's new here, she doesn't know you're playing around."

"New? Like new-new?" The one with the ponytail asked.

"Off-world new?" The other one asked, eyeing you with sudden interest.

"Fresh off the ship from Midgar." You shrugged.

"This here is Cloudy's little sister, so you better watch your tone." Gippal warned them.

"Yikes, no fly zone." The one with the ponytail said, quickly stepping away from you.

"Kill my dreams why dontcha?" The other one said, rubbing the back of his head. "Still, nice to meet you..." He gestured for you to give him your name.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." You said.

"Right, ≈≈≈≈≈≈, well I'm Reno." The one with the ponytail said.

"And I'm Axel. Got it memorized?" The other one said, using his brother as an armrest as he looked over at you with a smirk.

"Well, anyway, do you two want to help us show her around? It's her first day here." Zack explained, putting his hands on your shoulders.

"No thanks. I've got a date." Axel said with a wink.

"Yeah, with his pillow for a nap." Reno scoffed, and you laughed.

"I'm busy." Axel glared at Reno.

"Well I'm not. Let's go." Reno smirked at his brother, obviously knowing the whole 'date' thing was a lie to try and impress you. 

"Alright, let's get to it." You beamed at him.

"Hey, hang on, what are you guys doing?" Axel asked, trying to pretend he was only mildly interested.

"Oh, we don't want to keep you form your date big brother." Reno said, smirking.

"Yeah, Ax. Go on." Gippal added, all of them clearly enjoying this. 

"Fine." Axel crossed his arms.

"Fine." The three other boys replied.

"Fine!" Axel snapped. 

"Okay, come on. Let's go." You sighed, feeling a vicious cycle coming on.

∞

You had been walking with the three of them for maybe an hour or two and, despite the lack of organization, you felt like you actually did get to see a good bit of the town with them. They were pointing out all the important and interesting things around the town to you, at least.

"And this is the 8th sector." Gippal pulled open a large gate and you walked through looking back at Reno as he pointed to something, and you walked right into someone.

"Oof!" you gasped, wheeling around after knocking clear into someone's back. "I'm sorry, I wasn't lookin—Angeal!"

"Found her." Zack said with a sheepish look on his face.

"I have been looking for you two for over an hour." He seethed.

"Well Gealy-geal, you see—" Gippal began.

"There was this thing," Zack continued.

"Big thing." Gippal nodded.

"And then ≈≈≈≈≈≈," Zack gestured at you.

"You know ≈≈≈≈≈, right?" Gippal stepped behind you and put his hands on your shoulders and shook you a little.

"Had to—"

"Shut up!" Angeal yelled at Zack and Gippal, who just started giggling with each other.

"Let's continue on our way," Reno said, pulling you out of the line of fire and away from Zack, Gippal, and Angeal.

You didn't get far before the others ran after you and Angeal followed along still seething at them.

You had been walking for a little while longer when Zack's phone went off.

"Hello? Wait...What! YOU DID WHAT! Hang on, I'm coming, don't move! Wha—yeah, it's fine, she can do it on her own, don't worry, I'm coming!" He hung up his phone.

"What's going on?" You asked.

"Everything okay?" Gippal added. Zack grabbed Gippal by his shoulders and shook him.

"We have a code 15!"

Gippal's eyes went wide, and Reno gasped.

"What the hell is wrong with you guys?" You asked, shaking your head as the all all ran off, Angeal even getting caught up in their panic and running off with them. "Hey, wait!" You tried, but they were long gone. "Oh whatever." You said to yourself, thinking you were pretty much done with the tour anyway, and didn't feel like getting involved with whatever a 'code 15' was.

You decided that you would go looking for Cloud, realizing that your phone had been trashed in the fountain as soon as it got wet.  You kind of remembered how to get back to the library, but had no idea where to go from there, or how to get to the school where he said he'd be.

'Maybe I could just ask Genesis of Zexion for a phone? Or how to get to my house.' "Oh, I just don't know..." You accidentally said out loud.

"Just don't know what?" A voice asked coming up from behind you.

"Talking to yourself is a little weird, ya know?" Another voice added.

"Peculiar." A female said. You turned to face these new people, and got excited at the sight of another girl, since the minute you left home you had only met dudes.

"Hey, another girl, I was beginning to think I was the only one." You smiled at her.

"Pardon?" She asked.

"Well, you would be the only pretty one." The blonde boy with the beanie said.

"Seifer knows who's best, ya know?"

"That's me, I'm Seifer." He said holding out a hand for you.

"Seifer, okay." You took his hand, "I'm ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. And them?" You asked nodding at the other two.

"Rai and Fuu." He said nodding at the boy and girl respectively.

"Nice to meet you, ya know?"

"Pleasure" They said.

"So, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, huh? I've never seen you around before." Seifer said, looking you up and down to see if he recognized anything about you.

"It's my first day." You shrugged.

"Oh yeah? Where are you headed?"

"Nowhere, really." You shrugged. "Kinda lost, actually."

"And why are you out here all alone?"

"It's not safe, ya know?"

"Dangerous." They started circling you, almost.

You just realized you had no idea who these people were, and that they could be serial killers for all you knew. They certainly had a creepy way of talking.

"Oh, I'm not alone. I'm meeting someone here, he's just...running late, I guess."

"Who are you meeting? What's his name?" Seifer pressed.

"Uh, his name? His name...is..." The first name that came to mind was Zack, though you wondered if maybe you should say Cloud, since people seemed to be scared of invoking his wrath, or maybe even Angeal? He was big enough to scare anyone away, even the meaty looking Rai.

"She's meeting me, Seifer, piss off." A confident sounding boy with silver hair said as he walked up with his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

"Riku?" Seifer mumbled in bitter disbelief.

"What do you want, ya know?" Rai asked, getting in the boy's face.

"I'm meeting up with my friend. You got a problem with that?" He said, getting right back in Rai's face without even blinking.

"Like I said, I was meeting Riku here, and now that he's here, we can just be on our way." You said, grabbing this 'Riku's' arm, and pulling him along through that gate that Gippal had opened earlier, not wanting to see him get in a fight with those guys, especially not over you.

"Whatever...Just don't hang around lamers too long, or they'll start to rub off on you." Seifer called after you. Riku turned back and gave him the finger and you just laughed nervously and continued to pull him away.

As soon as those three were out of sight, you stopped, let out a sigh of relief and turned to him.

"Whew! Thanks so much. I felt like they were going to try and eat me or something." You said.

"Don't worry about it. They're annoying, but harmless." He shrugged, sticking his hands back in his pockets and looking at your face for the time. He seemed distracted for a moment as he tried to figure out who you were, "Well I'm sure you already picked up on this, but, I'm Riku. Are you new here? I don't recognize you. Sorry if you're not new, and I'm just some kind of unobservant jackass or something." You probably would have cut him off earlier to tell him you were in fact new, but you got distracted by his stunning aqua colored eyes, and the way they stood out so intensely against his hair.

"It's my first day here actually, so don't sweat it...Well, for all I know you might still be some kind of jackass, but..." You shrugged, making him smile. You found yourself grinning now too, thinking you liked the way his face lit up at your comment.  

"Hey, watch it." He joked, shaking some of his messy silver hair out of his eyes that shifted into view as he laughed.

"I'm ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." You held out your hand for him, thinking a proper introduction wouldn't hurt, even though you knew his name already. 

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" He repeated, taking your hand then looking up as he thought, "I know I've heard that name before. You're..."

"Mother is marrying Basch Strife." You finished for him. He might have gotten there on his own eventually, and you would have enjoyed watching him think, but you figured it would be better just to move the conversation along.

"That's right. You're Cloud's sister." He quickly let go of your hand, though you weren't sure if it was because he was also afraid of him, or if it was just because holding onto it any longer might have been weird. Not that you would have minded.  

"I guess I am now." You shrugged. It was going to be weird getting used to having a brother again after your real one had been gone for so long.

"So, will I be seeing you at school on Monday?"

"Yeah...school." You sighed. Your mother let you spend your summer vacation in Midgar, and moved at the last minute possible so you could spend as much time with your old friends as possible.

"Don't worry, it's not so bad. What grade are you in?" He laughed at your reaction.

"I'm going into 10th, you?"

He leaned on the wall you were standing by "Same here. It's a shame though, so is Seifer." He said casually.

"He doesn't seem so bad." You shrugged.

"Right, just give me a yell when you want me to bail you out again." He rolled his eyes.

"Hey, I can take care of myself." You argued.

He shot you a look, "You can? Like you did back there?"

"That's not fair. I just met them. I can't go making enemies on my first day. Besides... now that I know they aren't cult members or cannibals..."

"Right." He smirked.

"I am tougher than I look."

"Careful now, you might just break a nail." He jeered.

"I oughta punch you right in the nose." You joked right back at him, swinging at him in slow motion.

"Oh you're right, you're very scary." He swatted your hand away. You could tell that you were going to be good friends. It didn't hurt that you thought he was gorgeous, either. 

You two had been talking for a few minutes when you heard a voice calling out, "Riku? Where'd you go?"

It was a girl's voice, and you looked around curiously for the source.

"Oh...hey, Kairi." He said sighing, "Damnit, looks like she found me." He whispered to you as she walked over to you.

"Hey, who's this?" She asked, looking at you with a small smile that barely hid a very concerned look on her face.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. Nice to meet you." You offered her your hand, and she looked at it curiously before shaking it.

"Kairi." She offered quietly. "I'm sorry, I'm not...interrupting a date or anything, right?" She pulled her hand away and clutched awkwardly at her other elbow with that hand.

You laughed, "No, it's not like that, we were just talking."

"I see....Well, I guess our conversation can wait..." She looked over at Riku. "I'll see you in school tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah...sure." He nodded.

"Look, I just wanted to say I'm sorry again."

"Let's just...drop it. Forget any of it ever happened." He replied, crossing his arms over his chest uncomfortably.

"I don't want to forget I just...I'm sorry."

"Fine." He looked away, and she sighed.

You felt like you were sitting in the middle of something very tense, but felt too awkward to ask anything about it, "So, are you in 10th grade as well?"

"Mmm-hmm." She nodded, though she kept her eyes on Riku, who looked at the ground or at you. "So, I'm off to find Sora and...we'll you know." She began to walk off. "Bye."

_"_ Yeah, go have your date _."_ Riku grumbled under his breath so quietly you almost didn't hear him. It didn't help that he was scuffing his foot against the cobblestone street at the same time, but you still somehow managed to hear.

"She's dating Sora?" You looked at him, then at Kairi as she started to get farther away. Riku tried to stop you, but you were too boneheaded to pick up on his signal and called out to her, "Wait, Kairi, you're dating Sora? I met him today, he...pushed me into a fountain, actually...but he seems really nice!"

She looked like she almost winced, and turned back to you with the least convincing smile ever. "Yeah, he...he is really nice. But, no, we're not dating."

"Oh. Sorry, then. See you later...I guess." You waved a goodbye and she turned on her heel to continue on her way. "Sheesh." You said once she was out of earshot. You turned to Riku with a bewildered expression on your face, "What the hell did I just step in?" You asked him and he puffed out his cheeks and slowly let the air out.

"God, that was awkward, sorry about that." Riku said, rubbing his eyes with one hand as though he had a headache.

"She seems...well...nice." You offered, and he got a bit red in the face though it was clear he wasn't blushing. 

"She's a lying cheating—" 

"Wow." You raised your eyebrows, certainly not expecting that from him. 

He sighed, "Look, it's your first day. You don't need this. Besides, you'll probably find out eventually."

"Well, I guess every town has it's drama." You ran a hand through your hair.

He made a disgusted face, "Ugh, don't call it  _drama_. That makes it sound so 'bitchy girls.' It's just...complicated."

"I gathered as much." You nodded, looking at your feet. That whole encounter kind of killed any conversation you had going with him.

"I guess it's not really that complicated. We decided to go out a couple of months ago, but the whole time she was also seeing my best friend, Sora, behind my back. Or she was seeing me behind his back. We didn't know. She played us like a fiddle for two months."

"Jesus, it took you two months to figure it out?" You asked, dumbfounded, and he glared at you lightly.

"Yeah, I know. We were morons. We both used to be best friends with her, so it wasn't weird that she was always hanging around with one of us. There were weird love triangle vibes going on for years. Honestly, we were stupid not to see it coming. I don't know. She says it was all an accident, or a misunderstanding and that she just got very confused by her feelings for both of us...but come on. No one is _that_  confused."

"What, you don't think you can love two people at once?"

"Sure you can. But if you act on it while your supposed to be with someone exclusively, it makes you a lying cheating—"

"Okay, okay. Too soon. I get it." You quickly said, then added, "She's pretty though."

"Yeah, thanks for reminding me." He glared at you lightly.

"Well...there'll be other pretty girls."

"...Thanks..." He said very dryly.

"Pretty boys?" You grinned and he shoved you lightly. "Still though, she seemed so sad."

He got a grumpy expression again, "Yeah, well it's easy to seem humble and nice when you're walking around with your tail between your legs. Anyone is capable of anything. Friends, siblings, parents..."

"Wow, way to dump your shit on the new kid." You grinned at him, trying to change the direction of the conversation as quickly as possible.

"Oh shut up. You asked."

Then a thought occurred to you, "So, this might be a strange question, but shot in the dark...any idea where my house is? My tour was kinda cut short." You asked once the two of you had settled down again.

"Yeah, you know, I think I might." He said, kicking off the wall he was leaning against and standing up straight again, nodding in a direction with his head before beginning to walk with you, "What do you mean your tour was cut short?"

"Well I don't really know. Zack just kind of...ran off. Code 15 and all." You mused with a shrug.

"Zack? As in Zack Fair? I guess if you're Cloud's sister you would know who he was." He shrugged, then gave you a second look, "Code 15?"

"Yeah, no idea."

∞

After walking for a few minutes, you came to a more suburban part of the town. He led you down some streets, talking all the way. You told him about the trip and everyone you had met since. He especially delighted in hearing about your run in with Roxas and Sora, and he explained that they were his closest friends and he would hold that over their heads for years.

"So if you turn onto this street," he began as you rounded the corner "that's Ven, Roxas, and Sora's house."

"Who's Ven?" You asked as you made a mental note of the big three-story house on the corner being Sora and Roxas'.

He sucked in air sharply thought his teeth and sighed, "If you met them and they didn't tell you, I won't either."

"What, is Ven a creepy uncle or a dog or something?" You laughed.

"He's their older brother...but you didn't hear that from me. In fact you don't know, and have never heard the name."

"Hey, what name?" You held up your hands, getting that it was apparently a touchy subject.

"I dunno, this town is weird about things like that." He cleared his throat, "Anyway, that right there is my house." He said, pointing to the house right night to Roxas and Sora's. It was only two stories and had a very flat roof that looked like it was perfect for sitting on.

"Oh, so you guys are neighbors. Cool. Who owns the mansion?" You nodded at the house on the other side of Riku's that looked like a house from out of a fairytale.

He gave you a smug, knowing look.

"No way." You shot him a look. He just raised his eyebrows. You laughed, "You're kidding. Man, you could fit our whole townhouse in there, roof and all."

"Well, looks like you've got some house ogling to get to. I guess I'll be seeing you at school tomorrow. Look for me in morning before homeroom, near the auditorium. 10th grade has homeroom first thing in the morning."

"Okay, first thing Monday morning. It was really nice to meet you, Riku." You gave him a smile and he nodded.

"Yeah, you too." He found himself staring at you slightly as you took another excited look at your new house, "Okay. Well, see you then." He cleared his throat, lifting his hand in goodbye as he walked to his own house.

"See you." You said, waving after him.

You headed down the driveway to your new house, when you were distracted by music coming from behind you. You saw that on the porch of the house across the street from you was a boy with sandy blonde hair, playing a rather large instrument. You were about to walk over and introduce yourself to him, when you heard your name being called from your house.

"Hey, ≈≈≈≈≈ get your scrawny butt in here. I have been worried sick. Where is your cell phone missy?"

"Zack?" you turned back to your front door, where you saw him standing inside the doorframe. "I don't...what? Me? You ditched me! And...the fountain killed it..." You sighed as you stuck a hand into your pocket and brought out your poor little phone, which was too water damaged to function properly. The screen lit up neon green and pink, and the rest flashed white. 

"I did not ditch you. Axel just happened to trash one of Cid's ships out of spite. So rather than get my ass handed to me, I went to go help clean up."

You shook your head at him. "You couldn't have just made him clean it up?"

"He would have blamed me!"

"You didn't have to leave me."

"Well Gippal and I are both Cid's assistants during the summer, and Reno had to pick up after is brother, it was only fair."

"What about Angeal?"

"Are you kidding me? I wasn't going to leave you alone with him. I'm not an idiot."

"I will never understand what goes on in that big head of yours." You sighed, hitting him lightly.

"Just kidding, jeeze." He rubbed his shoulder where you hit him.

"So, you work for Cid then? That why he hates you?" You taunted, and Zack pushed you lightly as you walked by him to get into your house.

"No, he just pays piss poor and works us to the bone. And it's a good humored hate, if you know what I mean. It's like he's our uncle. Our mean, alcoholic, slightly abusive uncle."

To be honest, you weren't even listening to him. You were busy taking in your new house. The first thing that caught your eye was the grand staircase. It met at the bottom, but split into 2 as it ran up. You saw a sitting area with a large TV just off to the side of the door, and a long hallway leading off somewhere. Looking the other way, you saw a large hall that lead into a kitchen area.

"Any idea where my room is?" you asked Zack as he sunk down into the large leather chair in that little sitting area.

"It's around." He said, not being very helpful.

"Oh come on, really?"

"What are you gonna do about it?" He smirked.

"I would have thought you wanted to get into her bedroom." Gippal called, announcing his presence in the house by raising a hand holding the TV remote up form where he was laying hidden behind the couch, changing the channel.

"Ew." You made a face at Zack, and Zack went red in the face.

"Ju-just shut up, Gippal! What do you know!?"

"Second floor to the left, smalls." Gippal called out to—you assumed—you.

"Smalls?" You repeated, as you made your way to the stairs. Zack ran over to Gippal and the two quickly began bickering. You shook your head one last time as you walked up stairs and off in the direction he pointed. You looked down the hall and deflated as you saw more than 6 doors, and didn't have a clue what was behind any of them.

"Zack? Help me out here." You called over the banister.

"What? No way. Busy murdering loud-mouthed asshats!"

"Just come here." You fussed, opening a door and finding a linen closet. He groaned and gave Gippal one last smack, then made his way over to you.

"What is it, smalls?" He asked, adding as much annoyance to his voice as he could, but you could tell he was happy to be there.

"What's this 'smalls' business? Why is _that_  my nickname? And where are the goddamn bedrooms?" You snapped, opening another door and finding a bathroom.

"Well, your problem would be that you're not in the right hallway. He said, leading you the other way.

"But Gippal said—"

"≈≈≈≈≈, rule number 1:  _never_ listen to Gippal."

"Yeah, I'm starting to get that." You blew your bangs out of your face in an irritated fashion.

"Come on, this way." He said, leading you along. "Okay, so this is Cloud's room, so yours must be around here." He said, pointing at a door to your right.

You opened one door and found a bathroom again and sighed, quickly realizing the downside of having a giant house.

"Here we are!" He said, looking into a room that seemed to suit you.

You poked your head in, "Wow, it's all here. Who unpacked it all?" you questioned, stepping into your new room, it was much bigger than your old room, so your stuff didn't feel quite so cluttered now.

"I dunno, Basch is a rich guy, he probably had the movers do it."

You just yawned. "I think it's time for a nap." You said, burying your face in your favorite pillow as you collapsed down onto your bed.

"Alright then, don't mind me." He said, sitting over in the chair at your desk.

"What are you doing?" you asked, glaring up at him.

"Cloud told me to keep an eye on you." He said, picking up a book.

"While I nap?" you asked, annoyed with him.

"Even while you nap." He said, completely unfazed.

"Can I change first?"

"Sure." He shrugged, though he made no move to get up or look away.

"Unbelievable." You sighed and plopped down, giving up. You peaked through your eyelashes and saw him smiling as he watched you for a moment, then he shook his head slowly with a light laugh and returned his eyes to the bookshelf and picked something out to read. 

**∞**

**So I know one of the biggest problems with my original story was the creation of Bitchy-Kairi that I used to spark cheap tension and crappy conflict. I was going to make her nice and normal in this rewrite like she is in the games so I wouldn't have to write her out of character and upset any fans of hers, then just make an OC to take her old place in the story...but I think I like this better. It makes her a more dynamic character, and I don't have to change some major scenes down the line. And while I doubt she would ever cheat on anyone and will say right now that she is still a bit warped to fit the story, in KH1 you definitely get the feeling she could be into either Riku or Sora...so it's not so terribly out of character for something like this to happen. But if you guys don't like it, I can always go Plan B and throw in an OC to take Kairi's  place in the story and give her a less controversial role. Though either way, this is what were going with. It's physically painful to read how I originally wrote her, and I can't apologize enough for it.**

**Also, if this is your first time reading, don't be put off by Roxas in this chapter. That's not really what his character is like under normal circumstances, it's just that they happened to meet under...well, non-normal circumstances. I promise you this is not a reinvention of the 'stuttery, awkward, insecure, or blushy' clichés people sometimes write for him. You'll see.**

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

**Spot the Disney Movie reference for a Choco-buck coupon, valid at any Chocobo Hut location for free hot wings and side of your choice.**

**∞**

You were napping peacefully in your new room, when suddenly you realized that the chorus of voices you thought you had dreamed up were actually real people chatting it up in your room while you slept.

"Can we wake her up already? I feel creepy watching her sleep." A chipper female voice said.

"Well, you don't have to watch her sleep, you could read a book, or play on your phone." Zack said.

"But she's so cute! Just look at her little face!" You got the feeling she was about to pinch your cheek.

"Don't touch her, let her sleep." Zack snapped.

"Fine, maybe I'll just start singing."

"Please god no..."

"Or you could both try playing the quiet game." A new voice, very deep and gravely, said.

"Oh come on, let's just wake her up!"

"Leave her be." A soft female voice said.

"This is so boring!" The chipper voice complained.

"Will you guys just go away? I was doing just fine on my own." Zack whined.

"Sorry Fair, orders are orders." The deep voice said. It sounded like he was far away, whoever it was.

"It's not that bad Zack, Cloud will be back soon and then we can all go do something!"

"Well it's just great we can find something else to do, because clearly you people won't let me sleep." You grumbled, just a tiny bit grouchy. You opened your eyes now that you had revealed you were awake, and sat up.

"Oh sorry, I'm Yuffie!" A girl with short black hair said, she was sitting at the foot of your bed, she had been the one trying to wake you,

"I'm Tifa. We're all good friends of Cloud's." A pretty girl with long brown hair said.

"This here is Vinny." Yuffie said, putting an arm around a guy with long dark hair who was leaning against the far wall.

"My name is Vincent..." he corrected her, sounding very annoyed.

"And we are your wake up call!" Yuffie chimed, unfazed by Vincent's tone.

"Sorry about all this ≈≈≈≈≈≈, Cloudy apparently sent backup." Zack grumbled from the corner of the room.

"It's not our fault you're trouble when it comes to ladies." Yuffie cooed.

"Shut up." Zack sighed.

"Apparently he's not that bad, Angeal said he's only dated two girls." You said, enjoying this little scene.

"Dated maybe, but there is not a girl in town who has not suffered one of his pleas for a date."

"That's just not true." Zack defended himself, getting to his feet.

"Oh it is too." Yuffie challenged him.

"it's pretty true." Tifa agreed.

"I hate you all." Zack mumbled.

"Too bad, because we love you!" Yuffie took a flying leap into his arms bridal style.

"I should drop you on your ass." He warned, but she just kicked her feet happily and leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. She put her hand on the other side of his face so he couldn't turn away from it either.

"Mmmmmwahhh!" She finished her cheek kiss with dramatic flair, and he took it with a grumpy glare on his face, then chucked her back to her feet before rubbing at his cheek vigorously.

"You're sick." He grumbled at her.

"Haha! Gotcha." Yuffie sang happily.

"You know, when I said I wanted you to watch my sister, I didn't mean while she was sleeping." Cloud said, poking his head in and looking at all the people congregated around your bed.

"I fucking knew it." You mumbled, throwing a pillow at Zack.

"Hey—≈≈≈≈≈≈!" Zack blushed and shot you a 'shut up now, please' look, and you rolled your eyes.

"Tifa, you ready?" Cloud asked, trying to get back on track.

"Yeah, course." She said, getting to her feet and following him out of the room.

"Where are they going?" You asked with a yawn. You were tired, but still got the feeling that there was something going on between the two of them. You could have sworn you saw him hold her hand as they got out into the hall and thought they were out of your eyeshot.

"They had some last minute school shopping to do." Vincent explained.

"Aw, I'm sorry Zacky, We didn't mean to get you in trouble with Cloud." Yuffie said.

"He's gonna fucking kill me, you know? I will haunt you 24/7 when he does." He grumbled, looking the other way to hide his still tomato red face.

"So guys, why is it dark out, it's only 5?" you asked, looking from your watch to the window.

It was completely dark out; moon, stars, and everything. It looked as though it was midnight.

"This world sits on the precipices of darkness. It was once lost to it, but then the King brought it back from the brink. Sometimes it leaks through and the light can't find its way here, even the light of day. It's a pretty common occurrence." Vincent explained.

"Is that even safe?" You asked.

"As long as the king is here." Zack said, looking outside, then back at you with a casual smile.

"Besides, even if all hell breaks loose, you've got nothing to worry about." Yuffie cooed with a smirk.

"What do you mean?" You asked.

" _What do I mean?_  Oh, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈.You really are the cutest." She winked at you knowingly and then glanced at Zack, who was glaring daggers at her.

"We've got company." Vincent said, nodding to the window, where Riku was standing on the branch of a thick tree by your window.

He was about to tap on the window, when he saw that you all had noticed him.

"See what I mean?" Yuffie mused, shaking her head.

"Riku?" You asked, getting up on your knees in bed and leaning over to open the window.

"Hey guys." He said, jumping into the room.

"We were just leaving." Yuffie said, smiling. 

"No we were not." Zack said, crossing his arms defiantly.

"Yes we were!" She said, grabbing Zack by the front of his shirt and pulling him out of the room, Vincent following boredly.

"What were they all doing here?" Riku asked, watching as Zack clawed at the door to try and keep from being pulled out, but Yuffie was apparently much stronger than she looked.

"Being annoying." You said, sitting back on your bed.

"Well that's Yuffie for you." He said with a shrug, taking a look around your room with an amused smile on his face. 

"Anyway, what brings you here?" You asked. "Not that I mind the change of company...my brother's friends are all kind of insane. The whole town probably knows my name by now."

"Well, they probably do, city slicker. It's a small town, and news travels fast. But anyway, my mom and Basch have been coworkers for years, and she made a welcoming gift for you and your mother." He said, holding out a Tupperware container full of cookies and brownies. "A word to the wise, don't eat any brownies. She had me help her make them...just trust me on this one."

You laughed and picked up a brownie, broke it in half and handed one side to him.

"You can't make me." He grimaced, not wanting to take it.

"On three." You said, holding it to your mouth as you sat on the bed.

"Please no." He pleaded, leaning against the windowsill and giving the brownie a wary look.

"One..." You began excitedly.

"Two..." He continued, sounding like he was in pain.

"Three!" you both said, taking a bite at the same time.

It was burnt and crispy, and tasted like unsweetened coco powder.

"It's not...too bad." You said, trying to chew and muster a smile.

"Please, I think I chipped a tooth." He laughed.

"No really, you just gotta...stir better when you make the batter." You said, trying to swallow another bite, but he took the brownie away from you and tossed both bits of it out the window he came through. "Are the cookies okay?" You asked, eyeing the large chunky looking chocolate chips.

"They should be, I was no where near them." He joked.

He stayed and talked with you for a few more minutes, but then he looked at his watch and said, "Well, I should be heading back. You're settling in okay thought?"

"Yeah, sure. Thanks for checking in." You nodded.

"Well, my mom made me, but my pleasure." He grinned. "See you tomorrow."

"See you then." You replied, and with that he climbed out the window, and crossed the tree back over to his house. You realized that his bedroom window was directly across from yours, just a little bit lower, and you looked over his roof to Roxas and Sora's room and wondered if you could see either of their rooms.

You wondered about what you would do now, so after some thought you decided to go see...

**~~~~~~Riku~~~~~~**

"Hey Riku, you sure you have to go?" You asked, before he was even out of the room.

"Do you want me to stay?" He asked with a small smirk he was doing a poor job of keeping off his face.

"Not at all, it's just you drove everyone else away, and I don't know what to do now." You said, smiling politely as if you hadn't just made a completely backhanded comment.

"Well when you put it like that..." He said rubbing the back of his head, and pulling his leg in from the window. Then his face lit up, "Actually ≈≈≈≈≈≈, would you like to go somewhere with me?"

"Depends. What do you have in mind?" You shrugged.

"The roof."

"The roof?" You repeated, not sure what you expected but somehow that wasn't it.

He chuckled, "Yes the roof. Come on. It's cool." He nodded out the window and you got up and walked over. He stepped from your window to the tree then looked back at you. The thick branches looked like they had been trimmed recently so they were the perfect distance between the houses, so you would have to do a bit of a jump to get there since your legs weren't as long as his. Seeing this, you raised an eyebrow at him from the windowsill, still inside your room and now more unsure than ever that you wanted to follow him.

"Are you kidding me?" You asked, looking at the drop.

"Oh come on." He said, shaking his head.

"You know, I don't think I'm ready to die."

"You wouldn't die, just break a few bones or paralyze yourself." He said with a smirk. You glared at him and began to shut the window, "No, ≈≈≈≈≈≈ come on, you'll be okay, I've got you."

You opened the window back up, and sat on the windowsill. Riku held out a hand to you.

"Do you trust me?" He asked.

"No. No I do not. I really don't." You said, shaking your head.

He looked at you sideways and you rolled your eyes, then pushed off the window.

"Shitshitshit." You mumbled as your feet clumsily landed on the branch. As the tree branch moved under your weight, you pin wheeled your arms to keep balance and he laughed at you.

"See? That wasn't so bad." He chimed once he stopped laughing.

You wanted to kick him.

"Okay, okay, I've got you." He said, putting a hand on your shoulder to better help you keep your balance as you began to walk across the branches, then hugged the trunk and made your way to the other side. "We have to climb a bit now. Just don't look down."

"This sucks. You suck." You fussed as he pulled you along then stopped and cupped his hands and bent down.

"Well now, you're not very lady like are you?" He said with an amused grin.

"Not at all, you son of—"You put your foot in his hands and grabbed the branch above you, and he boosted you up in the middle of your sentence. "'Go to the roof,' he says. 'It'll be cool,' he says!" You grumbled as you struggled to pull yourself up onto the new branch despite his boost.

"Just hold on." He laughed as you managed to get one leg up, but struggled to get your torso onto the branch. He jumped up, grabbing hold of the branch and pulled himself up so he was chin level with the branch, then pushed up so he was able to sit on it.

"Well, sure, it's easy if you have any kind of upper body strength." You mused bitterly as he got to his feet then grabbed you under the arms and pulled you up to your feet.

"Anyone ever tell you you're kind of a grump?"

"Keep making me climb trees, I'll show you a grump."

"Oh come on. Where's your inner child?" He chuckled.

"Inner child my ass. You have a death wish. Bastard."

"Wow, you get a potty mouth when you're scared. You've met Roxas, right? You two would get along so well." He grinned, and you glared at him.

"Bite me."

"Ready to jump?" He asked, completely ignoring you as he made his way from the trunk to the branch's end and looked down at his roof. You remembered how flat it looked from the ground, but suddenly it seemed much steeper and way more dangerous now. He told you to hold on to something so he could jump off without shaking you off the branch in the process. He gracefully leaped over to the roof then looked back at you. "Piece of cake." He shrugged.

"Hah." You rolled your eyes at him, but made your way over nonetheless. He had skillfully made the jump, and you skillfully didn't. Your foot clipped the edge of the roof and you cursed loudly as you clawed at the shingles to try to keep from slipping down with your foot over the side of the roof, but Riku had grabbed your arms and pulled you fully onto the roof.

"You're bad at this." He commented with an amused smile.

"Oh come on, that wasn't bad for my first time!" You said, excited now that the danger was gone and you had done it.

"Well...you didn't fall. That's something."

"Oh, and what are you, mister perfect pants?" You mocked him as he lead you over to a spot in the middle of his roof and sat down.

"Mister perfect pants? Good one." He said sarcastically.

You slumped down beside him, sliding a bit on the curve of the roof until he put an arm over your torso to press you down and keep you from skidding further.

"We're gonna need a paper weight up here for you or something." He laughed.

"Maybe your attitude makes you denser than I am." You shot, scooting your way back up so you were level with him.

"Maybe it's my perfect pants." He shrugged, then laughed at your bitter expression. "It's okay. We used to have to hold Sora down too. When we were kids, Sora, Roxas and I would all climb that tree. The first time that he tried it, Roxas fell out of it and broke his wrist. That's why he writes left handed, even though he was born a righty. He was in a cast when we were learning to write, so he just picked up the pen in his left hand, and boom."

"And that, you stupid boy, is why we stay out of trees." You said.

"It's cool. He's ambidextrous."

"Because of a tree incident." You rolled your eyes.

"It's still cool." He looked over at you with a smirk, which you ignored by looking up at the sky.

"Wow, look at them all...I've never seen so many stars." Being from the city, you had never really seen a sky so filled with stars. "They're so pretty." You said.

"They're not the only thing." Riku said, scanning the sky.

"Was that a cheesy pickup line?" You propped up onto an elbow to give him a cheeky smirk and laughed at him.

"I meant you can see other planets out there too if you look close enough...but nice to know you'd laugh in my face if I ever did try one."

"Only if it was super cheesy." You shrugged, settling back down, then cursing as you slid down the roof a few inches again.

"Are you ever not going to need my help today?" He shook his head and pulled you up again.

"Hey everyone, welcome to the 'Watch Riku Flatter Himself' show. We've got a great new episode for you starring the king of self-flattery himself—"

"Shut up and enjoy the view." He smirked, shaking his head lightly, then you both fell silent for several minutes.

"I wonder what's out there..." You looked up, trying to see if you could find any worlds. Traverse Town seemed to be in a pretty secluded corner of the map, and it was hard to tell what anything else was from this way.

"Other worlds, new horizons. I can't wait until the day I'll be able to go see things for myself."

"What's that matter? This world not big enough for you?" You asked jokingly, but he went quiet.

He didn't answer for a while, then finally said "Maybe...if there are other worlds out there then I want to see them."

"Of course there are other worlds out there, where do you think I'm from?" You asked. He looked over at you and nodded, a new realization in his eyes. The two of you stayed out on the roof talking for quite some time until your eyelids became heavier and heavier...

"So, the only teacher you really need to look out for is-≈≈≈≈? Are you sleeping?" He finally noticed that you had fallen asleep. "And they say that guys are the ones who don't pay attention." He shook his head and nudged you awake. "Come on, back to your house we go." He said. You looked up at him, then rolled over.

He chuckled at your antics and lifted you up into a sitting position. "Come on, off to bed with you." He said, pulling you to your feet. He walked you back over to the tree, and jumped into the branches. You were too tired to care really, and the fall didn't seem like such a big deal to you now. With a hop and a skip you were back on the tree, and it was much easier to go down than up. In no time at all you were at your window.

"Ha-ha, second time's the charm." You smiled tiredly at him.

"Well, would you look at that, you don't need my help after all." He said, leaning against the wall in your bedroom as you crawled in through the window

"I used to do things like this with one of my old friends...only our houses were much smaller...and so were the trees " You said, looking out your window at the ground, and shuddering at the thought of making that drop.

He laughed a little, saying "And here I thought you would be normal."

"And just what does that mean?" You yawned.

"It's certainly not an insult." He said, as he headed back to his house.

"Goodnight." You said as he began to climb the tree back to his house.

"Night." He said and you shut the window and closed the curtains after making sure he got back to his room alright, then began to get ready for bed.

**~~~~~~Roxas~~~~~~**

You decided to go on a little walk. You walked down the grand staircase in your house to the main entrance, passing by the living room where Zack, Gippal, Yuffie, and Vincent were all sitting around the TV and talking. You snuck past them to go outside, and found that it was surprisingly easy to skirt by because they were being so loud and carrying on like usual.

You made your way outside, and realized that you could see your breath in the cold night air. It was the end of summer, so you were dreading what winter might look like in this place. When the sun was out it was pretty pleasant compared to the humid armpit that Midgar was, but it must have dropped 30 degrees when the sun went down. You were just happy you still had on Genesis' sweater.

You walked past Riku house and then saw Roxas coming out of the fancy Victorian looking house next to it, carrying two heavy looking garbage bags in each hand. He disappeared into the open garage, then reappeared dragging a large trashcan down the driveway.

"Roxas?" You called out to him as you approached his drive way. He had headphones in and was singing along quietly to his music as he dragged the heavy looking trashcan along, and you smiled to yourself as you watched him do a drum solo on the lid. "Roxas." You said again, louder this time, and he jumped and looked over his shoulder at you, pulling out an earphone.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, Jesus, how long have you been standing there?" He asked, running a hand through his hair and clearing his throat, his cheeks getting a faint pink dusting.

"Long enough, rock star." You grinned and he sighed as he set the trash at the curb to the side of his driveway.

"Great." He sighed, smiling lightly despite his embarrassment.

"No, no. It was very impressive. Very punk rock." You joked and he laughed.

"Oh yeah, taking out the garbage is super punk rock." He said sarcastically, then he pulled out his other earphone and hung them both around his neck as he paused the music. "So, how are you doing? I'm sorry for, you know, freaking out earlier. The crash looked pretty bad, and I was just...worried you were hurt." He looked down at his feet, kicking a rock in front of him.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it." You shrugged it off, "Besides, I think I scraped up $5 dollars in coins while I was in the fountain." You flashed him a cheeky grin and he laughed though he still looked sorry about the whole thing. "Anyway, how's Sora? I don't think I ever got to ask him."

"Oh, him? Nah, he's fine. He's got a skull thick as a brick. In fact, I think he did more damage to the fountain than it did to him." He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets.

"So, what do you do for fun out here in the sticks?" You asked, looking around the street. It was such a quiet town, it didn't seem like anything was going on anywhere.

He laughed, "The sticks?"

"Well, you know..." You gestured to the street, which was so void of any traffic or cars that you could go lie down without worrying about anything.

"Well, we folk here have a mighty fine time sittin' 'round watching paint dry on the barns. And there's always Cow Tippin' Tuesday." He threw on a thick country accent and shot you a look when he had finished.

"Sorry. I guess I deserved that." You rubbed the back of your neck, and he smirked and shook his head at you.

"City slicker."

"Oh shut up." You looked behind him and saw their skateboards a ways up the driveway. "Hey, you were teaching Sora to ride, right? Think you could teach me?"

He threw on a very enthusiastic, very sarcastic tone, "Yeah, okay. This time lets launch you off the landing docks."

"Oh come on. I know the basics. And how to stop. It's just been a while." You said, making your way over to the boards.

"Really? You're serious?" He asked, following along behind you as you picked one of the boards and stuck a foot on it, rolling it over the bumpy driveway to try and test it out a little before standing on it.

"So, you've been on one before, I take it?" He asked, stepping up onto the other board comfortably and rolling past you to the street.

"It's been a few years, but yeah." You nodded, stepping up onto the board and giving the ground a kick. You wobbled and had to you're your arms out like an airplane to keep your balance, and you cursed as you hit the bump between the end of the driveway and the cobblestone street, but you beamed at him as you caught up to where he stopped to wait for you, "Like riding a bike."

"Alright X-Sports. Come here." He rolled his eyes at you with a laugh and rolled over to you so he could put one hand on your shoulder to keep you steady and held your wrist with his other hand so he could pull you along behind him as he basically did all the work to get you both moving again.

"So, who taught you how to ride? You're already better than Sora." He commented as you became more comfortable and didn't need him to pull you anymore. He still kept a hand on your shoulder to make sure you didn't topple over, but you were able to kick your foot against the ground to gain momentum now.

"My best friend from Midgar. We were never very good, and I'm clearly still not any good, but I haven't fallen yet. You're much better about keeping your students vertical. He was...a bit of a tough teacher." You said, grabbing hold of his arm as you hit a stone, then loosening your grip as you regained your balance. He didn't even seem to notice the change in surface as the two of you rolled up and down the streets of Traverse Town, but you were needing to adjust and take hold of him for balance constantly.

"You know, you're really good at this. Who taught you how to ride?" You asked.

"My...older brother, Ventus." He said tentatively, after a short pause.

"Oh? I didn't know you had a brother besides Sora." You said, thinking back to your conversation with Riku from earlier. You pretended like you weren't really paying attention to the conversation, and kept your focus on just trying to keep yourself upright.

"Yeah...he doesn't live at home with us." He shrugged and made to rub the back of his head, which caused you to teeter a bit as he suddenly became much less of a solid thing to grasp hold of. He quickly readjusted his hold on you, feeling stupid that he just did that.

"Oh yeah? Is he that much older?" You tried to sound like you were just making pleasant conversation.

"No, he just didn't want to stay, I guess." He said, this time making sure that he didn't make any sudden movements.

"Did he run away?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"That's terrible. Do you know where he is?"

"Around. We have a general idea. Anyway, he works at the school, so it's not like we couldn't go see him if we really wanted."

"That's good, I suppose. My own brother...my real brother...we don't know where he is...if he's alive. At least you know, right? That's something. Do you miss him?"

He didn't answer for a moment, then finally said, a bit hesitantly "I...we didn't really get along. All the same, it has been a while since I've seen him. But anyway, here we are, come full circle." He said, and sure enough, you looked up and realized you were back in front of your house. You were slightly surprised, you had no idea where you were going the entire time, but he was taking you in a large circle around the housing district.

"Wow, and here I thought we were going straight the whole time." You scratched your cheek, wondering how you got back here when you took off in the opposite direction.

"Well that's what you get for looking at your feet the whole time." He snickered as he stopped and kicked his board up into his hand.

"Oh shut up. Show off." You grumbled as you had to hold onto him to stop, then bend down to pick up the board.

"Yeah, whatever. Goodnight." He said, taking the board from you as you handed it over.

"See you tomorrow." You replied, walking up your driveway to your door, then turning back and waving at him. He waved back and waited for you to get inside before hopping back on his skateboard, and heading home. You were curious about his family's past, and his mysterious older brother, but you decided that Roxas wasn't especially keen on the subject, so you wouldn't press it.

**~~~~~~Sora~~~~~~**

You watched Riku cross the tree back to his house, and then noticed that Sora was outside in Riku's front yard, jumping up and down trying to get your attention. Once he was satisfied he had you attention, he pointed to the ground outside your house. You nodded and made your way downstairs and passed everyone unnoticed since they were all glued to the TV screen. You walked out into the yard and over to where Sora was walking up the driveway.

"Hey S—"

"I didn't know you knew Riku." He said running up to your house.

"Yeah, I just met him today, he helped show me around after Zack ditched me."

Sora looked at his feet, "That's Riku for you, always there in the nick of time."

"Yeah, well its always fun to be pushed into a fountain every now and then." You said quickly with a bright smile. There was clearly some issues going on with Riku, Sora, and Kairi, so you didn't want to bring up anything you didn't have to.

He perked up a little and put his hands in his pockets asked, "Hey, do you maybe wanna go out for ice cream?"

"Sure!" You beamed, then reality hit, "Oh...wait, I don't have any money."

"It's fine, I gotcha covered. Maybe I'll give you your special lunch treat early." He said with a shrug.

"Okay then lets go!"

"Great! This town can be pretty boring, but you know, who can be bored when there's pounds and pounds of ice cream to be had? Come on, I'll show you the park after."

"Sure, sounds fun." You nodded, and followed along beside him as he led you off down the street.

Aftee a few minutes of walking to another district, he took you inside a large ice cream store that was decorated like the 70s never left it. It must have taken you both ten minutes to sample all the flavors and decide what you wanted. It was nice to be around someone who was just trying to have as much fun as possible, even when doing something silly like ordering ice cream.

Eventually you both ordered your favorites and he paid for them, then the two of you walked to the nearby park. You sat down on the swings to eat your ice cream and talk.

"—and Tidus is on the swim team with me in the winter, but only because he's using it to train for Blitzball season in the fall. Our school has an amazing Blitz team. It's almost impossible to make varsity if you're under 10th grade. It's impossible to compete with guys like Tidus, Gippal and Wakka, since they are all from Spira, where the game was invented. Then there are people like Zack and Cloud who are just total powerhouses no matter what sport they're playing."

"Are there any girls on the team?"

"Oh yeah, and they are total badasses. There's Tifa, Cloud's girlfriend. She's even scarier than Cloud when you get her mad. And Paine. My god, if looks could kill. Then there's Rikky, a girl from Spira, she's really good too. Not like Gippal and Tidus, who could probably go pro tomorrow, but still."

"I can't wait to meet everyone."

"They're gonna love you, I can already tell! The only one you gotta watch out for is Seifer."

"Oh, I met him today actually. He doesn't seem that bad." You shrugged. Now that you knew more about him, you felt like your whole meeting with him earlier was just a misunderstanding.

"Sure, he's not that bad...until he sees you with us. We have like this feud going on with his gang, since they were always bullying us when we little." Sora's phone began to ring and he sighed, knowing it wasn't going to be good. "Hello?...Oh hey Roxas...Yeah, I just took ≈≈≈≈≈ for some ice cream...Yeah, she's right here. Hold on I'll put you on speaker."

"No, Sora, don't!" You heard Roxas quickly exclaim, but Sora already hit the button.

"Too late." You laughed.

"Hey...≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." He sighed, wondering if he would ever be able to talk with you under non-embarrassing circumstances.

"So what do you want?" Sora asked, trying to get his brother back on track.

"Mom wants you to come home, she says she wants you to get to bed so you're not such a pain in the morning." Roxas explained.

You laughed and Sora shot you a look.

"He's lying, of course." Sora said quickly hanging up on him.

"Of course." You smiled.

"Well I guess we should be going...you know, not that it has anything to do with Roxas." Sora said, getting up and stretching casually.

"Sure." You said sarcastically and he glared at you, "Come on, let's just get you home before your mom gets mad." You laughed.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, please. I don't have a bedtime."

"I never said you did." You shrugged.

"You're thinking it."

"You don't know what I'm thinking."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Paopu fruit." He said confidently.

"Not even close." You shook your head and your walk home was filled with his guesses of what you were thinking, none of them remotely near it.

**~~~~~~Zexion~~~~~~**

You left your room, deciding to go for a walk. You walked around the block and down the road, not really paying attention to where you were going when someone called your name.

"≈≈≈≈≈?"

"Oh, Zexion. Hey." you said turning to see him holding a green recycling bin that he was bringing out to the curb.

"What are you doing here?" He asked setting it down.

"You know, just walking around."

"I see." He said walking over to you, "So, you've finally managed to give Fair the slip?"

"Yeah, I mean, he's still in my house, but he doesn't know I'm out here so...Say, why did you just duck out on our tour? I was having fun with you." You shrugged, looking around the street to try and figure out where you were.

"You were having fun...with...me?" He sounded honestly surprised.

"Well sure...didn't you have a good time?"

"Of course I did, but I didn't think that you were enjoying your time with me. Especially with Fair around. He and his frat-boy friends bring out the worst in me. I was afraid it spoiled your opinion of me."

"Not at all. Believe me, I've met the frat boys. I can see why they drive you insane." You offered him a smile and he looked pleasantly surprised as he returned it, the corners of his lips curving upwards slightly.

"You're nothing at all like I thought you'd be." He said, putting his hands in the pockets of his jacket as he looked you over.

"What's that mean?" You asked with an amused smile.

"Well, to be perfectly honest, when I first saw you, I passed you off as a pretty girl who fell in with Fair's crowd, and didn't have any use for her brain."

"Ouch...well, at least you called me pretty before kicking me where it hurts." You laughed.

"I'm only telling you this because now I know I was dead wrong. Please don't be offended." He tried to keep a neutral expression, but you could see him playing with his sleeves nervously as he spoke.

"It's going to take a lot more than that to offend me...you know, as long as you don't still think I'm some kind of a dumbass."

He chuckled, "No, don't worry. I was happily mistaken."

"So what changed your mind about me?"

"You did." He shrugged.

"How so?"

He smiled, "I'll see you tomorrow, ≈≈≈≈≈≈."

"Wait, Zexion—"

"Goodnight." He began to walk through his front yard to return to his house.

You shook your head and sighed, then turned around to see if you had any idea how to get yourself back home.

**~~~~~~Zack~~~~~~**

You wandered out of your room and back down the hall to see where everyone had gotten off to, and found them all huddled around the big TV in the living room on the first floor. Well, Yuffie, Vincent, and Gippal were there, but you didn't see Zack with them.

"Hey guys...Riku came baring gifts." You said, holding up the box of cookies and brownies. "Keep to the cookies though, if you know what's good for you." You advised, setting the box on the coffee table in front of them.

"Well that was sweet of him." Yuffie said.

"His mom made him." You shrugged and Yuffie jabbed an elbow into Gippal and shot him a knowing look. Gippal just shrugged.

"Hey, where's Zack?" You asked, looking around the room.

"Balcony." Vincent said simply.

"What's he doing out there?" You asked.

"Smoke break." Gippal said.

"He's kidding." Yuffie said with a laugh as she returned her attention to channel surfing while Gippal helped himself to a brownie.

"Ohmygod, iss howible!" He said with his mouth full of bitter burned brownie, allowing it to crumble out of his mouth and fall into his palms. "Eugh!"

"I tried to warn you." You eyed him like he was a moron.

"Try harder next time!" He grimaced, grabbing a napkin and spitting the brownie out into it.

"Well, I'll just be going then." You said, seeing how enraptured Yuffie was in the TV, how whiney Gippal had just become, and how much Vincent didn't care about any of it.

"We'll be here." She waved you off. You shook your head and headed down the hall, finding a set of glass doors, and sure enough you saw Zack was standing out there by himself, looking out over the rail.

You walked outside announcing yourself by saying, "Hey there."

"Oh, ≈≈≈≈≈≈, didn't hear you come out." He said, turning around and giving you a small smile.

"Is everything alright? You seem down."

"Yup, I'm good." He shrugged.

"You don't look so sure." You said, hopping up onto the railing to sit on it.

"If I seem down, it's only because school is staring." He said, getting his usual cheeky smirk.

"Hey, you're not the new kid. What do you have to be bummed about?" You kicked your feet back and forth as they hung from the rail.

"Oh please, don't act like you don't already know everyone in town. You can't walk down the street without someone saying your name."

"Well, whose fault is that? You're the one who was blabbing to everybody and their mother about my arrival."

"I didn't tell that many people."

"Oh no, not a soul. Just the bakery owner, the café staff, the candy shop worker, the construction man,  _all_  of your friends—"

"What can I say? I just want you to feel welcome." He laughed lightly and leaned on the rail with his elbows.

"I do feel welcome." You nudged him lightly, and he suddenly sighed rather heavily.

"So...earlier, when we were with Angeal..."

"Here we go." You rolled your eyes.

"You said you'd never dated anyone...any particular reason?"

"I dunno." You picked at a spot on the knee of your jeans, anything to avoid making eye contact. "It's not like I haven't been asked out before, I just...never felt like I met the right person, you know? And I didn't want to waste my time on something that was never going to work."

"Sure." He rubbed his chin, thinking, then he stood up and faced you, clapping his hands down over yours to stop you from fidgeting with your jeans and make you pay attention to him. "So...meet anyone today who changed that opinion?" He flashed you a charming smile and raised an eyebrow.

"Not sure." You laughed and leaned back, trying to create some distance between the two of you. "Too soon to tell, I guess. I hardly know anyone."

"Hardly know anyone—≈≈≈≈≈≈, please, I am an open book for your perusing pleasure. Anything you want to know, I'm all yours. "

"Alright, then tell me why you're so damn interested in my love life?"

"Easy." He shrugged, "I like you."

You blinked at his unwavering gaze several times before you stuttered, "A-as a friend, though, right?"

"Sure, if you wanna take that way. But that's not what I meant."

"I...need to get to bed..." You slid off the rail and skirted around him until you got to the doors, where you stopped and looked back at him, "That...that was a joke, right?" You asked.

He leaned against the rail and crossed his arms over his chest as he looked at you carefully, "Yeah. It was."

"Asshole." You mumbled and turned back around and went inside and hurried off up to your room.

He stayed rooted to the spot after you left, thinking. He really wasn't joking, but if that was going to be your reaction then maybe he would have to dial it back until you were more comfortable with him.

**∞**

You said your goodnights to everyone and made your way back up to your room to wind down from the day. Whenever you came out of the bathroom from washing your face and brushing your hair, you saw Cloud had plopped down on your bed and was waiting for you.

"Hey." You greeted as you walked back into the room.

"Hey, how was the first day?" He asked, propping up on his elbows on the bed as you hopped onto it near the pillows and sat cross-legged.

"Pretty good. You've got a strange town here, but I'm not complaining."

"Yeah, well...if you stick to the people your age or mine then you should be fine. Just cut Zack's age group out altogether and you should be fine." He said and you laughed, then he raised an eyebrow at you, "That wasn't a joke."

"Isn't he supposed to be your best friend?" You rolled your eyes at him.

"Yes, he is. But he has a crush on you, and being the victim of one of Zack's crushes is never a good thing. And knowing his friends they'll probably follow suit soon enough if they haven't already."

"Oh shut up, he does not. And his friends are nice. A little weird and randomly destructive, but nice." You insisted, but Cloud just sighed.

"I knew this was going to happen if I let him come along."

"Well, don't worry. Right now I'm more interested in not getting lost every time I step out the front door than boys." You sighed a little yourself, thinking how dumb it was for you to convince yourself you would be able to get along easily by the end of the first day. That certainly wasn't the case, but you had Zack, Gippal, and Reno's poor tour to thank for that. You felt good about the housing district from your walk with Riku, but you still didn't know how to get to the school or the grocery store or any of the cafés and restaurants.

"You don't know how good it is to hear you say that. I was about to start a hit list."

"Now that one was a joke." You grinned at him, thinking you were finally getting a grasp on his sense of humor, but he didn't crack a smile or give any other kind of sign that it was just him messing around.

"Kind of."

"Damn, I forgot how uptight older brothers are." You settled back into the pillows and he sat up a little higher.

"So...what was Cauis like?" He asked suddenly out of the blue, making you feel a bit put on the spot.

"Oh. Well...I hate to say it, but I really don't remember him all that well. Besides, when I last saw him he was 8, maybe 9?"

"Tell me about him."

"He was always really tall." You mused, looking up at the ceiling as you tried to get a picture of him in your head. "He looks a lot like my mother. Dark hair, kind eyes, always wearing a quiet smile. We were young, but he always seemed so dependable. He wouldn't let me hang out with him when his friends were over, of course, but we were really close otherwise. You're a lot like him, actually...though, I'm curious how much my mother told you about him."

He gave a light shrug, "More or less the same thing, give or take a few nicknames and doting words. I know I can't fill the gap he left but—"

"Oh, no, don't worry." You quickly stopped him, "It really hurt when...well...but really, it's been so long any memory I have of having a big brother is faded at best. You don't have to try to live up to anything. Besides I'm not looking for Caius 2.0. I want Cloud the overprotective brother who would sooner put a hit out on his friends than let them near me...well, maybe not exactly that, but you know. You're fine as you are."

He gave a small smile, and nodded a thanks to you. It was an awkward situation to be thrown into by your parents, but you were both just trying to handle it as well as you could. It was sweet of him to even bring your real brother up, you thought, because you had been planning on never mentioning him in case it would make Cloud uncomfortable.

"Anyway." You sat up in bed and gave him a smirk. "So....Tifa?"

He broke into a bigger smile and looked away form you, "What about her?"

"She's really pretty, and seems nice. Good job."

"Who told you?" He rubbed the back of his head.

"I figured it out." You shrugged. It wasn't necessarily true, but he didn't need to know that.

"Well, I guess I should have known you'd find out. Word travels fast here."

"Yeah, half the town knows who I am already. I wonder whose fault that is?"

"....Zack's?"

"Whatever. Why didn't you tell me about you and Tifa?"

"Oh, I don't know. It seems stupid now. We wanted to give you a chance to get to know her before we said anything about us."

"You're right, that is dumb."

"Shut up."

"Well, come on. Tell me about her." You nudged him lightly, and he looked at you curiously.

"You really want to know about her?"

"Yeah, of course I do." You looked at him like that was the dumbest question you had ever heard. 

"Well, if you mean that, she's downstairs. You could get to know her yourself."

"She's here still? I thought everyone left?"

"Everyone but her. She was going to wait until I said goodnight to you, then—"

"Wait, our parents aren't home...Cloud, you dog." You got to your feet and made for the door a wide smirk on your face.

"It's not like that."

"Our rooms are right next to each other, I would be able to hear everything."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, behave."

"What was your plan here? Were you gonna put a sock on the doorknob or something to let me know to vacate the premise?"

"You're gross."

"I'm not the one sneaking people in after hours."

"Keep it up, see if you get dinner tonight." He grumbled at you, then the two of you made your way down the stairs where you joined Tifa on the couch to watch a few movies and talk about the day while Cloud ordered take out for the three of you.

Finally, at midnight, Cloud insisted it was time for bed, and sent you off to your room. You were sure they were going to stay up later, but you decided to let it slide. You were pretty tried after all, and it was going to be another long day tomorrow.  

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Back to School**

**∞**

**Find the line originally spoken by N** **octis Lucis Caelum in the FFXV demo for a Chocobuck!**

**$1 Chocobuck lets you request time with a character of your choice in the next chapter. (provided the character is already in the story and you're not asking me to call them from the void just for the purpose of your request)**

**$5 Chocobucks will let you put in a one-time only OC who will appear in the next chapter as a background character. For example, who's that kid who got pushed into a locker? Your OC! Who ran out of the math test crying and was never seen again? Your OC!**

**$10 Chocobucks gets you a short drabble with a character of your choice written by me. This can be any character you want, because it will be a drabble unrelated to this story. (probably)**

**And $25 Chocobucks will get you a reoccurring OC who will become apart of the story.  I don't promise a major role, but I've worked other people's OCs into the story before and it's worked out well.**

**We can come up with more later, but I think this is fine for now. <(￣︶￣)>**

**∞**

The next morning you woke up to Cloud dropping down onto your bed with a loud yawn. You tried to ignore him and put your head under the pillow as he stretched his arms up into the air and continued yawning in between words.

"Time to get up."

You just coiled yourself into a tighter ball under the covers. He retaliated by laying back from his seated position, crushing your legs and hip under his back, then he flung his arms out to the side, hitting you in the shoulder with one of his arms. You groaned irritably at him, but he didn't seem to care.

"Hey, I'm not happy about being up either, but here we are."

You sighed and sat up, at this point wanting his crushing weight off you more than you wanted to sleep. You looked over at the clock, then glared at him, "My alarm was going to go off in 8 minutes...."

"Well, now you'll have 8 more minutes to get ready." He grumbled as he sat up and twisted from side to side to crack his back. It was obvious neither of you were morning people.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈! Good, you're up." Tifa said as she walked into the room with a few bags in her arms.

"Not technically up." You said as you tried to rub the weariness from your eyes.

"Well, you're mornings about to get a whole lot brighter; I brought presents." She came into the room and pushed passed Cloud to sit on the bed next to you. He took this opportunity to lay back down on your bed and close his eyes for a moment.

"What kind of presents?" You said through a yawn.

"School uniform and supplies."

"Oh..." Any perk the thought of presents had given you immediately died.

"And chocolate chip waffles."

"Oh!" You beamed at her, and she shook her head as she handed you the bag from the Fountain Plaza Café.

Tifa waited for Cloud to take the coffee and bagel she got for him then kicked him out of the room so you could talk uniforms. While you sat up in bed munching away on the whipped cream covered waffles, she unpackaged several notebooks, pencil and pen sets, and some folders and then put them all in your backpack. Then she began to pull out uniform bags.

"Uniform?" You scrunched up your face in disgust, years in a Midgar public school having ruined you for wearing decent clothes to school. Your fashion sense on any given school day was usually borderline jammies.

"It's not so bad, relax. It's a little bland, since our school colors are black and gold and there's only so much they could do with that, but I bet you look good in anything, anyway. You can wear any combination on any given day." She said, pulling out two black ties with gold stripes, and four white button-up shirts; two long sleeved, two short. Next came a dark gray cardigan and sweater vest, a yellow cardigan and sweater vest, a black blazer, followed by two black skirts and two pairs of black pants. All of the items except the pants were trimmed in gold in some way, except for the yellow cardigan, which had trimmings in the same places in black. The skirts had a golden band just above the hem, and all of the shirts and jackets had two rings of gold at the top of the right sleeve, where your bicep would be.

You realized now that she was wearing the yellow cardigan with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows and the black slacks for school, and not just as her outfit for the day. They looked good on her, so you hoped that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to have a uniform after all. Then you noticed her sweater had four rings of black instead of two, like all of yours.

"What are the bands for?" You asked, your mouth full of waffle.

"Grade level." She said simply with a shrug, taking a bite of the fruit tart she got for herself now that she was done handling your school things.

"Oh great, single us at the bottom of the totem pole out."

"Could be worse. You could be a freshman." She laughed.

The two of you ate your breakfast together, talking about your classes and teachers. She gave you directions to things, which you immediately forgot, but you figured you could always just ask if you got turned around. Then she got up to make sure Cloud hadn't gone off and fallen asleep somewhere while you started to get ready.

The uniform certainly made the outfit picking process simpler. You just had to pick pants or a skirt, and then choose a sweater. It was completely dark outside still, so you went long sleeved guessing it was cold. Then all you had to do was socks and shoes, then fix up your hair and face. You were out of the room in less than 20 minutes with your backpack over your shoulder. The only problem was the tie you left hanging around you neck. You didn't know how to do that shit.

You went downstairs and heard someone in the kitchen, so you went to investigate expecting to find Cloud and Tifa in there. Instead you saw the peppy Yuffie bouncing around, dressed in the white long sleeved uniform shirt and the skirt rolled up a few times to make it more aesthetically pleasing. You made note of the three bands around her arm, and guessed she was a junior.

"Hey Yuffie." You greeted, walking over and setting your backpack on the island in the middle of the kitchen.

"Morning!" she sang.

"Chipper as ever." You noted, pouring some coffee from the pot you figured she had just made into a thermos you found in a cabinet. You would need six or seven cups to feel as awake as she looked at this hour.

"Looks like we have a rat eating all our food." Cloud said, entering the kitchen. Yuffie just shrugged as she got out the butter from the fridge while the toaster popped and she took a sip from her mug of coffee.

"I left extra early so I could catch you guys this morning, and in doing so, I skipped breaky. Lighten up." She explained, getting out a knife too.

"Hey ≈≈≈≈, lunch money." Cloud said, dropping 5 dollars into your open hand. He decided he would get himself a thermos of coffee for the road.

"The new Strife family seems to have caffeine deficiencies." Yuffie commented as she watched the two of you.

"Ready to go?" He ignored her completely and turned to you.

"Yup." You said as you put your lunch money in your backpack then slung it over your shoulder again.

You led the way to the front door while Cloud chugged more coffee and Yuffie stuck her toast in her mouth and put away the butter quickly before scurrying after you. Tifa was there waiting, looking through her bag for something or another. You got to the door and pulled it open, only to nearly walk into Vincent's outstretched hand as it reached for the doorbell.

"Oh, morning Vincent." You said to him as he lowered his hand. You saw behind him was Zack, Gippal, and Reno, all deep in conversation. Yuffie popped out from behind you, and Cloud joined you as you headed out the door.

As you walked up to them, you asked Reno, "Where's Axel?"

"Sleeping...."

"Just assume he's going to be late. Always. It makes it easier." Zack added.

"He's not really a morning person." Reno shrugged.

"Understatement of the year." Gippal mumbled.

"No one even tries to wake him up anymore, it's...bad for your health." Zack said.

"Last year I don't think he showed up to morning announcements once." Gippal chuckled.

"I'm not sure he even knew we had morning announcements." Reno rolled his eyes.

∞

The walk to school was much shorter than you thought it would be. It was pretty much a straight-shot down the road your house was on, with only one turn around the park. Then from there the housing district ended and the school district began. There was a big hill that separated the two, and there was a stone stairway leading up the hilltop to where the school sat. 

The sun began to rise as you climbed the stairs, and by the time you were at the top, the school was framed by sunlight. The first thing you noticed was the large circular garden pit with 'Traverse Town Academy' engraved in the stone, and was polished and flat so you could sit on it if you wanted. It might be a nice place to eat lunch, you thought. The face of the school was made from gray stone with big glass windows and doors. The main thing you noticed, however, was just how big it was. There was no way you were going to make it out without getting lost a few times today.

"You good, ≈≈≈≈≈?" Yuffie asked as she pulled open the door.

"Yeah." You shrugged, and she nodded then faced forward again.

As soon as you got one foot in the door everyone began to split off in different directions. Cloud, Tifa, and Vincent went one way, Zack, Reno, Yuffie, and Gippal went another. You realized Yuffie wasn't asking if you were doing alright, but rather was asking if you needed help getting anywhere.

You cursed under your breath, realizing they were all gone around different halls and rounded the corner, so you couldn't go chasing after anyone. You stopped short in the middle of the hall, and traffic had to go around you as you peered around to try and make an executive decision for what direction to go.

You saw Genesis walking along with his nose in a book as he went, and you quickly darted after him through the crowd.

"Genesis!" You called out to get his attention. He looked up from his book and glanced around, but had trouble finding the voice that called him in the sea of students. "Care to offer a little help for the new kid?" You asked with a sheepish smile as you got to his side.

A warm smile graced his lips as he saw you, "And risk you refusing my offer again?"

"I'm not taking your book." You said, noticing that the book in his hand was the very same one he tried to give you yesterday.

"So insistent." He shook his head, clapping the book shut and sticking it under his arm so he could give you his full attention, "Now, what can I do for you?"

"Auditorium?" You asked hopefully.

"Right this way." He gestured down a hall, and began to lead you off.

"I really appreciate this." You said as you followed along beside him.

"Not a problem. It's on the way to where I'm headed anyway. But if you need anything else, I'm happy to help."

"Careful, or I might just take you up on that. This place is a maze." You sighed, looking at the web of corridors going every which way.

"The school is really just a big circle with a courtyard in the middle. Even if you get miserably lost, you'll eventually wind up in the right place." He explained.

"Easy for you to say." You mumbled.

"Here we are." He stopped, "The double doors through that clearing." He instructed.

"Great. I can take it from here." You smiled, and he nodded.

"See you later, then."

"Bye." You dipped your head, and he began to walk down a nearby hall off to wherever it was he was going.

"That's not something you see everyday." Someone asked from behind you, causing you to start. You heard a laugh, "Someone's jumpy."

"Yeah, well, don't sneak up on people, Roxas." You turned around to shoot a glare at him. You were secretly very proud of yourself for being able to tell it was him by voice alone. He looked impressed as well. Riku was there with him, a smirk on his face.

"Genesis Rhapsodos with an underclassman. Never thought I'd see the day." He said, and Roxas nodded.

"What do you mean?"

"I dunno. He's a bit of a snob, I guess." Roxas shrugged.

"No he's not. He's super nice."

"Oh that's right. I forgot you've known him and been in school with him for multiple years." Riku said.

"Maybe he just doesn't like sarcastic know-it-alls." You offered and they exchanged a look and shrugged lazily.

"What's going on with your tie?" Roxas asked, eyeing it with an amused look on his face. You made a makeshift tie-looking knot since you didn't know how to do it properly.

"Who cares, I'm wearing it aren't it?" You shrugged, tugging it away from your neck slightly.

"And that's how you get a demerit before the day even begins." Riku shook his head at you.

"The hell is a demerit?"

"How do you not know what a demerit is?" Riku laughed.

"I'm not from here! Your school is ass-backwards."

"Oh, Midgar. What are we going to do with you? It's like a write up." Roxas explained, reaching for your tie and undoing the knot so he could pull it off your neck. He put it around his own neck and began to fold it over slowly to demonstrate how to do it properly, "You get three demerits they stick you in detention. You get them for stupid things. Eating in the hall, running in the hall, talking in class, dress code violations. It's all bullshit, but what are you gonna do?" He finished tying it, then pulled one of the strings so its opening became wide enough he could get it over his head and handed it back to you.

"Thanks." You said as you took it from him and slipped it over your head and put it around your neck. He reached forward and tightened it up for you, and you had to slap his hands away and loosen it a bit so it wasn't choking you.

"And tomorrow, we'll show you the proper way to wrap an infinity scarf." Riku said, clearly making fun of you both.

"How do you even know what an infinity scarf is?" You rolled your eyes at him.

"Can we get going now?" Roxas asked and you looked at him blankly.

"And go where?"

As if on cue, a bell rang.

"Homeroom?" Riku said, and you vaguely remembered him saying something about your grade having it first thing in the morning. The two began to lead you off towards the clearing where the hallway opened up into a large open space where fellow sophomores were all crowding double doors leading into the auditorium.

"So where's Sora?" You asked, bringing up the fact that he wasn't with his brother.

"I don't know." Roxas shrugged. "Around?"

"Wow." You said very sarcastically at him, and Riku chuckled.

"That's the Rostar family for you."

"Whatever, I'm not in charge of him." Roxas said as he held the door open for you and you crossed into the auditorium with its dozens of rows of seats and the large stage in the middle hidden behind a thick red curtain.

They walked about halfway down the rows of seats before picking a row to sit in. You followed in behind them, taking the seat next to Riku. People filled in around you, and with them came a loud hum of chatter.

You were busy asking the boys where the lockers were when a sudden hush fell over everyone as two students walked on stage. It was a boy and a girl who were both seniors. The boy was tall and very handsome with dark black hair and a charming smile, and the girl had very long brown hair tied back and braided with a pick ribbon.

The boy began to speak at the microphone, "Hello, welcome back for another great school year. For those of you that are new, I am your student council president, Laguna Loire, and this is my vice president, Aerith Gainsborough." He gestured to the girl, who stepped forward and gave a small wave and a bright smile. "Before we go on with the daily announcements, would the sophomore class representatives this year please stand up."

Roxas snickered and Riku whacked him on the back of the head as he got to his feet.

"I didn't realize we were sitting with a VIP." You said to Roxas, who scoffed.

"Don't worry, you're not."

You looked around the room for the other class representative, and saw only a redheaded female standing a few rows up and to your right. You looked at Roxas from behind Riku's back and mouthed 'Kairi?' at him, asking if it was her or some other redhead that maybe you just didn't know yet. He nodded and you mumbled "Yikes."

"Yikes is right." He said quietly as Laguna went on.

"Should you need anything, don't hesitate to talk to one of us, or if we aren't around, one of your class reps."

Riku sat down and punched Roxas in the arm and grabbed your leg just above the knee with his thumb and middle finger and squeezed hard. It tickled more than it hurt, but you still jumped and gasped. "Brats." He grumbled, letting go of you and looking ahead with a grumpy expression, leaving you to rub your leg, and Roxas to cradle his arm.

If anyone saw or heard you three, they ignored you as Laguna spoke again, "The Traverse Town Academy exchange program is being continued this year, with students from the world of Konoha coming here. There should be several of you out there, if you would please come down and introduce yourselves to your classmates, we're sure everyone is eager to meet you."

"We'd also like to welcome any new students as well." Aerith added, and Riku and Roxas both turned their heads to look at you as a few people began to stand up and walk towards the front of the room. You ignored their eyes and continued to sit watching pleasantly as others far more brave than yourself got to the microphone.

Riku yawned and stretched his arms up, and apparently pointed down at you because seconds later Aerith saw you and smiled brightly as she began to walk over. You could have killed him.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, Cloud's sister, right?" She asked as she offered you her hand.

"She's shy." Roxas said glibly, and you decided you would kill him too.

"Don't worry. We're so excited to have you here." She helped you to your feet then walked you down to the front of the room where the other new kids had congregated. You saw Riku and Roxas looking ever so pleased with themselves, and you tried to keep the bitter glare off your face as you began to feel everyone's eyes scanning over you and the other new kids.

"Please, introduce yourselves, and tell us where you are from." Laguna said, handing over his microphone to the closest boy to him.

"Kiba Inuzuka, Konoha." He passed the mic to a girl with long blonde hair. She gave her name and where she was from before passing the mic along down the line.

When you got the mic you had a moment of panic. "I'm ≈≈≈≈≈..." you weren't sure whether you should use your real last name, Ballad, or the name you wanted to take as soon as your mother took it, Strife. You decided to go with "Strife. From Midgar."

You quickly gave the mic to the boy next to you, and soon everyone who was down there had been introduced and everyone was allowed to return to their seats. You sat next to Riku and punched him roughly in the arm as you sat.

"Oh come on!" He held his arm while laughing.

You crossed your arms and sat in silence while Aerith and Laguna read off the morning announcements, like sports tryouts and club activities. The bell rang and they dismissed everyone. You sighed as you got to your feet and made your way back into the hall. You were already ready for this day to be over.

"So, where are the lockers?" You asked them as they began leading the way somewhere or another.

"Oh, we use a cubby system here." Roxas shrugged and you stopped short and stared at him.

"Seriously?"

"He's kidding." Riku said, shaking his head.

"Roxas!" You glared at him while he laughed.

"You make it too easy, Midgar."

"Oh whatever." You rolled your eyes and continued walking along, but Riku suddenly stopped.

"Hey, I'll catch you guys later..." He said quickly, then took off down the next hallway with no explanation at all.

"That was weird." Roxas mumbled, watching Riku practically sprint away.

"I bet that's why." You said, nodding a gesture down the hall where you saw Sora talking to Kairi, both of them laughing.

Roxas sighed, "Don't worry about them, let's just get going. What's your locker number?"

"I dunno." You shrugged.

"You got a schedule?" He asked, and you turned around so he could see your backpack.

"Second biggest pocket." You said, and then you felt him unzipping things and rummaging around through your notebooks until he finally pulled something out.

"747." He said, turning your schedule over to the back, where some student information was listed, like your locker number, advisor's name, and student ID number. "Looks like we're neighbors." He said, turning down a hall filled with lockers and classrooms branching off it. He explained that this was the sophomore hall, and a good bit of your classes would probably be around in this area.

"Hey guys!" Sora greeted as he ran up and put an arm around you and the other around Roxas. "I didn't see you this morning before homeroom, what gives?" He asked, probably more to Roxas than to you.

"I had to go to the office first. They messed up my enrollment again." He shrugged, and Sora groaned.

"I had to sit alone."

"It's not like you don't have other friends." Roxas rolled his eyes, and you noticed what a caring and sensitive brother he was.

"What was wrong with your enrollment?" You asked, finding locker 747 and checking the paper again for the combination to it.

"Oh they fuck it up every year. We're twins, so they always just write us off as the same person when assigning lockers, and only one of us ends up with a locker." Roxas said, stopping at the locker to the right of yours, 748.

"It's good to be the memorable twin." Sora said with a smug smile and Roxas gave him some serious side eye as he continued to put his books away. "Anyway, what class do you have first, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" He asked, completely ignoring Roxas.

"Chemistry." You sighed, but his face lit up.

"Me too!" He looked ecstatic, "Thank god, I was sure that class was going to suck. I'm terrible at chem."

"Ah, don't worry. I'm sure we'll be bonding in no time." You grinned, and Roxas groaned as if he was in actual pain.

"You've got to stop making puns, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." He growled at you. Sora didn't even realize you had made a pun, which probably spoke to how bad at chemistry he really was.

"Stop being such an electron, Roxy." You grinned, and he closed his locker door roughly and shot you a nasty look.

"I'm going to math." He stormed off.

"Hey, you made Roxas leave."

"Sorry." You shrugged, taking your chem stuff out and putting it in your backpack.

"Don't be sorry, you're the best." He beamed, and then began to lead you off to class.

∞

The lab room was set up with two chairs to a table, but you took so long to get there that all but two seats on different sides of the room were left. You and Sora exchanged a look and shrugged, and he walked over to the closer table where a kid with jet black hair was sitting. Sora didn't seem to recognize him, so you figured he was probably new. You were too busy being furious at Riku to really pay any attention to the people who were up there with you at homeroom for introductions.

"Mind if I sit?" He asked, and the boy didn't even look up.

"Not on your life."

Sora looked back at you, and you shrugged again. He walked over to the other side of the room where the only other vacant chair was, and you sighed and sank into the chair next to the grump. At least if you did it without asking he couldn't tell you no.

He didn't look like he even noticed you sat down as you began to pull out your books and your pencils. You heard someone whispering furiously behind you, and you looked back to see the girl with long blonde hair form homeroom glaring at you while talking to the pink haired girl next to her.

"Ignore her." The boy next to you said, resting his chin on his hand.

"Do you know her? Should I try and switch seats with her or something?"

"I do know her. Don't switch with her."

"So, you must be one of the exchange students."

"I am."

"Well, it's my first day too. I'm ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈."

"Sasuke. You said you were from Midgar earlier, right?"

"Yeah, but I'm much happier to be here. But what about you? What's you're home world like?"

"Let's just say I'm happier here too."

"Fair enough." You mumbled, and then the teacher walked into the room and all chatter died out as the misery began. You knew it would be bad when the first thing he did was throw down lab worksheets on every table.

∞

You spent most of class listening to a mind numbing lecture on chemical bonds, then things only got more boring as you moved onto the lab activity. You decided it should be illegal to teach something so dull this early, but at least it wasn't anything too hard yet. The bell eventually rang and everyone practically fought to be the first one out of the room.

You walked back to your locker with a sense of dread for whatever hell was coming next.

"Who's the electron now?" Roxas asked with a smug smirk as you joined him by lockers.

"Ugh, I never want to hear anything chemistry related again." You said, hanging your head sluggishly as you put away your chem books and grabbed your schedule to see what was next. You saw that on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday were P.E. days, and Tuesday and Thursday was Health.

"Well, cheer up. We've got gym next. First day is always dodge ball day."

"Gym?"

"Yeah, you know...gym. Running, push ups—"

"I know what gym is, jackass. I just don't have any clothes to wear. I completely forgot about gym..." You hit your head against your locker door slightly for being so stupid.

"Well I brought for both today and Wednesday, if you're interested." He said taking out a rolled up black shirt from the top section of his locker. You took it from him, unrolled it and held it up to yourself to size check it.

"Oh come on—The Nobodies?" You crinkled your nose at his music taste as you realized it was a band T-shirt.

"What's wrong with The Nobodies?" He gave you a disgusted look.

"Sorry, I forgot you're the king of punk rock." You rolled your eyes.

"Would you rather have..." He reached into his locker and pulled out a red t-shirt with the logo of the popular fast-food chain 'Chocobo Hut' on it.

"Why do you have this?" You asked with a laugh as you took it from him.

"I won the Choco-Fire Wing Challenge. I earned that shirt."

"Oh please, so you ate 5 hot wings. Big deal." You scoffed, and he took the shirt back.

"5 of the hottest wings they could make. People cry during this challenge. You don't deserve to wear it." He handed you back The Nobodies t-shirt and some basketball shorts and then the two of you began to walk off towards the gym.

"...Did you cry?" You smirked, and he paused to glare at you before opening the gym doors.

"Go away. Girl's locker room is over there. Look for Olette, she knows the drill." He shooed you off and you snickered as you went.

You made your way into the girls locker room and looked around at who was in there. The girls from chemistry were there, but they were about the only ones you recognized until you saw Kairi talking with two brunettes, a girl with black hair, and a blonde girl.

"Kairi, hey!" You said as you walked up to her, excited to see a girl you knew. You could count on one hand the number of girls you met since you got here.

"Hi ≈≈≈≈≈≈." She greeted as you approached. "How's the first day going?"

  
"Good, overall. Chem's boring, but that's not exactly a news flash or anything. What about you?" 

"Pretty good." She said, though you got the sense that maybe she had been crying earlier. Her eyes looked very red and tired , and the girls with her looked fairly concerned for her. "Um, anyway, this is Naminé, Selphie, Xion, and Olette."

"Hi guys. I'm ≈≈≈≈≈≈." You said, picking out a locker near where they were talking and beginning to change. Roxas was only slightly taller than you were, but he was apparently much broader than he looked, so everything looked a little baggy on you. You had to tie the drawstrings of the shorts to make sure they wouldn't come loose during dodge ball.

"Oh so you're ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. My brother wouldn't stop talking about you all of yesterday." The girl with black hair, Xion said.

"Uh-oh. Who's your brother? It's not Zack is it?" You asked, noting the dark hair and blue eyes.

"No, we should be so lucky." Selphie said with a laugh and a dreamy sigh.

"Ignore her. Selphie has a massive crush on...well, just about everyone in Zexion's grade. He's my brother."

"Really? He didn't mention having a sister."

"Of course he didn't. Prick." Xion scoffed.

"Hey, you like The Nobodies?" The second brunette with the big green eyes, Olette, said. "The only person I know who likes them is—"

"Roxas, yeah. Trust me, he's still the only person you know who likes them. I just forgot my clothes for today."

"I should have known." She smiled and shook her head, "Oh, but this means you know Roxas then, I guess."

"Yeah, he's my locker neighbor. And my real neighbor. I met him yesterday when he and his brother accidentally pushed me into a fountain."

She laughed, "Somehow I'm not surprised. Sora and Roxas being together usually means disaster is bound to happen."

"So I'm learning. Hey, before I came in here, he told me to look for you, that you 'know the drill.' Any idea what that might mean?"

"I've known him half my life and I never know what he means." She shrugged, switching from her school shoes to her athletic shoes.

"He probably just meant for you to show her what to do while he's away." Naminé said.

"Naminé is the only one who speaks semi-fluent Roxas." Xion said.

"We love 'em to death, but our boys are dumb and weird." Selphie said as she put on some chapstick.

"Nah, they seem nice." You shrugged.

"You'll learn soon enough, that's a pretty accurate description of them." Olette said.

"If only Xion would bring her cute brother around more often." Selphie winked and Xion rolled her eyes.

"Shut up. He's not cute. He's a total dillhole." Xion grumbled, putting a few bobbypins in her hair to keep her short wispy bangs out of her face.

"Speaking of total dillholes, I think Wakka stole my sports bra!" Selphie growled as she looked around her locker furiously.

"Actually, that was me." Olette said with a sheepish smile, pulling the collar of her shirt away to reveal Selphie's turquoise sports bra.

∞

In a few minutes you were all ready and left the locker room. People were standing around in circles chatting, some sitting on the gym floor, and some leaning against the walls waiting for class to begin.

You found Sora, Roxas, and Riku standing around with a few of their other friends, and made to go join them, but Kairi and Naminé hung back and sat against the gym wall, talking quietly. You wondered why, until you remembered how uncomfortable it was whenever she came near Riku and Sora. You felt bad, but it was probably for the best that she stayed away, at least from Riku, for a while. He seemed to be particularly angry with her, though Sora seemed more forgiving. Maybe at lunch, you thought, you could try and help get their friendship back on track.

"Don't meddle, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." Xion said, seeing you looking back at Kairi while walking to meet up with the boys.

"I wasn't—"

"Oh please, I know that look. Olette and Selphie get it every 5 minutes too." She sighed, and Olette looked away while Selphie cleared her throat.

"Alright, you caught me. It just sucks is all. I got stuck between Riku and Kairi on the street yesterday...I've felt less tension in a hostage situation."

"I know what you mean, but we can't do anything. She's our friend and all, but she did a bad thing. It's up to her to make it right, not us. Because they're our friends too, and she really hurt them." Xion said looking ahead at Riku and Sora.

By now you were close enough to the boys that they would be able to hear your conversation, so you quickly dropped the subject.

"Good lord, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, what are you wearing?" Riku gave you an exasperated look as you walked up. In all fairness, you did look a little like a rapper in your baggy clothes and grunge t-shirt.

"It's P.E., not the runway." You rolled your eyes at him. "Besides, Midgar is one of the most fashion forward cities. This look is very in. You're just too behind with the times to know it."

"Oh because a band tee and basketball shorts is such a new concept." He rolled his eyes right back at you.

"It's ironic. Doubly so because I hate the band." You shot Roxas a look.

"They're my clothes. She forgot hers." Roxas said, "Not that she's grateful." He threw in a bit of a glare.

"Should have guessed. No one likes The Nobodies." A boy with sandy blonde hair in a muscle tank said.

"Shut up Hayner. They're not that bad."

"They're pretty bad." A slightly portly brown haired boy said.

You got to stand around and talk for probably around 5 minutes before everyone was done changing and the class began. Like Roxas said, it was dodge ball day. It was a really fun time, and you felt like you were really getting to know some of your other classmates. Like Wakka, who Sora had told you about, who hit Sora dead in the face with a dodgeball. Or Tidus, who punted a ball at Riku so hard you thought it might kill him, only for him to dodge it in the nick...until he stood around looking smug, only for the ball to hit the back wall and rebound off it right into the back of his head. And then when you made fun of Roxas' shirt again, he made it his mission to get you out, all chivalry out the window. At least when you were out you got to spend some good quality time with the girls again on the sidelines until the round was over and you were allowed back in the game again.

Then the bell rang and everyone went back into the locker rooms to change out for class again. You had a 15 minute break now, so you were able to take your time while changing, before heading back out to the hall with the girls and heading back to the sophomore hall.

You got back to your locker and saw that someone had left a note in there for you. You grabbed the note and saw it was from Tifa, and under it was a ziplock bag of apple slices. You pulled out the little baggy and began to snack on them as you looked at your schedule to see what was next for you, when the boy on the other side of your locker showed up.

"No eating in the hall." He said through a mouth full of trail mix. "Least that's what that dude just told me." He nodded a gesture at the angry looking teacher prowling the hall.

"I won't tell if you don't." You said, putting the bag of apples back in your locker, but keeping one slice hidden in your hand that you took sneaky bites of when no one was looking. "Hey, you're new right? I think I remember seeing you up there with me this morning."

"Yeah, I am. Shikamaru."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. So, any idea what we're supposed to be doing now?"

"Well, it's break right? I guess that means we take a break." He leaned against his locker and slid down to the floor where he sat sneaking trail mix into his mouth when no one was looking, same as you.

You sat down next to him, grabbing a few more apples before you did and flashing one of them at him. "Trade you for some M&M's?"

"Deal." He nodded, stealthily slipping you the goods.

"So, you like it here?" You asked, pretending to be biting your nails so you could sneak a bite.

"Yeah, it's fine. Less intense than where I'm from, anyway. It's nice."

"I feel the same way. It's quiet here. I've never lived where it's quiet."

"Hey slackers, what's going on?" Roxas asked, walking up and taking out a dark water bottle from his locker before joining you on the floor.

"Oh, you know. Hanging around." You shrugged, sneaking another bite of apple.

"Amateur." He shook his head, popping off the top of his water bottle and revealing that it was full of popcorn. He pretended to take a drink of it, and it looked pretty convincing until he started chewing. Riku and Sora came over to join you eventually, and Tidus and Wakka followed them, and Hayner and Pence followed them, and Xion made her way over on her own. Eventually there was a sea of people around your lockers chatting and sneaking snacks. You realized that you weren't the cause for this, and that it was mainly Roxas pulling all of his friends over, but it still felt nice to feel like you belonged. It was so different from your old school. People smiled in the halls, no one cared about looking cool or being popular. Everyone was just hanging out and having a good time.

The bell rang and it was time for third period. Math.

"So, what do you have now?" Riku asked, helping you get to your feet.

"Math." You sighed, dusting off and turning to get into your locker for your backpack.

"Oh, well Sora and me too. Professor Saïx can be a bit of a hardass, but—"

"Saïx? No...I'm pretty sure my paper said Auron."

He gave him a funny look and asked to see you schedule. "You're taking trig, right? That's the 10th grade standard here."

"Nope, calc. I took trig last year."

"Wow, looks like your not the big shot smart guy on the block anymore." Roxas said, elbowing Riku.

"Well, you two certainly aren't competition." Riku shoved him back into Sora.

"So what grade normally does calc?" You asked.

"You get the option junior and senior year, along with stats and college algebra."

"So that means..."

"Sorry, you're on your own." Riku shrugged, "But I've gotta get going." He took off with Sora.

"Great." You sighed, turning to Roxas, "Any idea how to get to room...666? Uh oh...that can't be a good sign."

"I mean, it is a math room. It makes sense. 600's are that way, that's all I know."

"Well, see you later then, I guess." You said, studying your schedule again as if that would somehow make it easier to find your classroom. 

**∞**

**So in general the whole school day won't take up more than one chapter, but since this is the first day and every class needs a bit of an introduction this school day is probably going to be broken into 3 chapters. Just so you can see what the average school day is going to look like.**

 

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

**High School Never Ends**

**∞**

**(Dra vencd bancuh du dnyhcmyda drec kadc veja lrulupilgc!)**

**∞**

"Hey, you have history after math, right?" Roxas asked, seeing that you looked a bit depressed that you were going to have a class without anyone you knew in it.

"Yeah, I do." You said, taking out your math and history book and putting them both in your backpack, so you wouldn't have to come all the way back to your locker after class.

"Me too. You can tell me all about the slimy weirdos you meet then."

"Alright. But you have to promise to hate all the same people I do, and talk ridiculous amounts of shit about them."

"Of course." He nodded, laughing lightly. "C-a-l-see-you-later." He added with a grin.

You groaned and shot him a look, "Leave the puns to me." You tried to close your locker dramatically to punctuate your point, but... "Ow!" You pulled your hand away immediately and cradled it as you stared at your locker door perplexedly.

"What? What is it?" Roxas started, almost dropping his books. Your sudden outburst made him jump.

"My locker just...burned me." You continued to stare at it, still holding your hurt hand.

He looked at you blankly than reached a hand out for your locker door. He winced and pulled his hand back, "Ouch."

"Why would you touch it? What did I just say?" You snapped at him, grabbing his other hand as he made to touch it again, still not fully grasping the concept that it was hot.

"I just don't understand." He said blankly.

You then heard laughter from the end of the row of lockers, and looked over to Axel and Reno standing there looking pleased.

"Should have figured." Roxas mumbled, shutting his locker with his foot, and doing the same for yours.

"Sorry I couldn't help myself." Axel said with a wide grin and a slightly bow of his head.

"Axel, come on man, what was that for? You could've hurt someone." Roxas scolded him.

"I saw an opportunity and I seized it." Then he looked at you, holding your hand and rubbing the tips of your fingers. "You're not hurt though right? Do you need to see the nurse? It was just a stupid prank. I'm sorry."

"No!" Roxas answered for you, very quickly. "No one is going to the nurse's office." The three of you all looked at him curiously, and he slung his backpack over his shoulder and mumbled, "I'm going to class." Before storming off.

"Who pissed in his cheerios?" Reno scoffed as he watched Roxas take off.

"I guess he doesn't like the nurse that much. Maybe he's scared of needles?" You shrugged.

"Yeah, let's go with that." Axel scratched his cheek.

"Anyway, what brings you two down here?" You asked.

"You have calc now, right? So do we." Reno answered simply.

"Oh." You said relieved, "Good, cause I was probably just going to wander around for the next 40 minutes trying to find the right room."

"Now there's an idea. Let's do that instead." Axel grinned as they began to walk down the hall, and you followed after them.

"Sure, if you want to be the one to tell Cloud we were the ones who kept her out of class." Reno rolled his eyes.

"Alright, fair enough." Axel raised his hands in defeat.

"Why is everyone so scared of Cloud? He seems perfectly nice."

"You've never seen his murder eyes." Axel said, and Reno shuddered.

"I'm sure you're both exaggerating."

"No, no. We call him Hot Stuff because we're pretty sure his temper could melt steel beams." Reno explained.

"We call you Hot Stuff Jr., but for entirely different reasons." Axel smirked.

"Care to explain those reasons, or do I not want to know?" You shot him a lazy glare.

"Gippal came up with it." He shrugged.

"I don't want to know."

"So what are you doing later today? Any plans?" Reno asked casually as they turned down a hall and went up some stairs.

"Probably going to go home, do some homework."

"Homework? No! ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, you should come to blitz tryouts." Axel said quickly.

"Yeah, so you can watch Axel make second string. Again." Reno shot, and Axel glared at him. "Or you could try out for track and field with me."

"You run track?" You asked him, somehow surprised. He didn't seem like the running type.

"Well, I'm more of a 'and field' guy. High jump, discus, you know. Fieldy things."

"Right. Well, I'd love to, but no thanks. I'm more of an active napper, not an organized sports...er..."

"You sure? No little track shorts in your future?"

"Oooo, or volleyball. Spandex. Tight jerseys. Rolling around on the floor. Enough said."

"Charming." You rolled your eyes.

"Well, here we are." Axel said, opening the door to a classroom on the right.

"The king has arrived." Reno said smoothly as he slid into the room.

He was then promptly nailed in the head with the board eraser.

"Sit down and shut up Reno." A tall man with black hair and more than a few battle scars said.

In the room was Genesis, Zexion, Vincent, Naminé, Shikamaru, and a girl with short grayish silver hair and red brown eyes, and that was it. The bell signaling the start of class rang, and you found a seat next to Naminé, saying a quiet hello as you did.

"Welcome to a new school year. This is Calculus. Please make sure you are in the right class." The teacher said, looking directly at Axel and Reno.

"We are." Reno sighed.

"What, was geometry full?" Zexion mumbled and you snickered quietly.

"For your information, I'm good at math." Axel glared at him.

"Quiet. I'm Sir Auron. Not Mister, not professor. Sir. We are here to learn, not socialize. After the lecture, you can work quietly on the homework problems. When you are done, check your work with other students. Do not let the conversation stray from the topic at hand. Questions?"

You looked around, wondering if anyone else was put off by how intense this guy was, but no one else seemed to care at all.

"Good. Roll call. Amell?"

"Paine. Call me Paine." The girl with short silvery gray hair said.

"Noted. Clarette?"

"Present." Naminé said.

"Geos?"

"I'm here." Zexion said.

"Nara?"

Shikamaru gave a lazy grunt that kind of sounded like here.

"Rhapsodos?"

"Present and accounted for." Genesis said, his nose buried in a book as usual.

"Sinclair, A?"

"Yup." Axel raised a hand in the air lazily.

"Sinclair, R?"

"Yo." Reno yawned.

"Strife?"

You almost didn't respond, since this was your first day trying the name on. "Right here." You nodded after a pause long enough that he looked up. He held eye contact with you for a brief moment, then looked back down at the list.

"Valentine?"

"Present." Vincent said.

"Good. Let's begin." He dropped his papers down onto his desk and turned back to the black board. "Turn to page 8."

"Um, I don't have a book yet. Shipping was late." Reno said, and the chalk in Sir Auron's hand snapped.

"Share with someone."

"You heard the man, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." He said, waving you over with a finger, and Sir Auron turned around with a scowl on his face.

"Zexion share with Reno."

"Typical." Zexion sighed and scooted closer to Reno.

"I didn't know you were in calc." You said to Naminé quietly.

"Me either, if I had known I would have offered to walk with you."

"No worries. We can come together tomorrow!" You shrugged it off, then you focused on the board again, where Sir Auron had already begun jotting down formulas in messy handwriting.

The lecture only took around 15 minutes, probably because he didn't really talk that much. He wrote instructions and formulas on the board, gave a quick talk about what to do when you encounter what kind of problem, then he walked to the back of the room and grabbed a book. You took that as your cue to start the homework problems listed in the back of the first section of chapter one.

There were 20 problems, and he had written out the formula you needed for each one, so it was pretty straightforward. When you finished you put your head down on the desk and sighed. It was straightforward, sure, but the concepts themselves were a bit of a headache. Genesis and Vincent had already finished and were checking each others work, and Naminé looked like she was near finished, but everyone else still had calculators out and heads down.

You figured that if Reno weren't constantly pestering him, that Zexion would be done too, but he seemed too annoyed to focused.

"Will you stop copying me!" Zexion yelled at Reno.

"Copying? I am not!" Reno yelled back.

"I just saw you."

"How could I be cheating off of you if I'm 11 problems behind you?" Reno said.

"What does that have to do with anything? You're just stealing my answers from previous problems."

"Am not!"

"Reno, get over here. Show me your work." Auron commanded, and Reno whined and sighed, getting his notebook and doing the walk of shame back to where Sir Auron was. "Sit." Auron demanded. Zexion smirked and got to work, then finished within 5 minutes. "You are free to talk amongst each other once you're done."

You looked back at Reno and felt a tiny bit sorry for him. It probably wasn't easy to work with a guy like Auron watching you like a hawk.

"Wow, that was tough." Naminé sighed, setting her pencil down and looking over her work.

"Right? I had to guess on number 6."

"Number 6?" Genesis repeated, looking down at his own work. "I skipped it altogether." Then he looked back to make sure Sir Auron couldn't hear him, "I think the formula up there is wrong."

"Here." Vincent said, handing Genesis his paper. "It wasn't so bad."

"Well not for you, at least. That was painful for me." Zexion said.

"It was painful to watch." Paine said, resting her chin on her fist.

"Reno! The cubed root of 125 is not 25. That doesn't even make sense! It's a perfect cube. Stop guessing!" You turned back and saw Reno hitting his head against the desk over and over, and Sir Auron looked like he might blow a circuit.

"Don't even bother looking back." Genesis said, comparing his work to Vincent's and making a few pen marks along the way. When he finished, he handed it back to Vincent, then took your paper and Naminé's.

"It's like watching a car crash." Paine said, handing her work to Vincent.

"At least a car crash can inspire pity." Zexion said quietly.

"Sick burn, Zex." Axel snickered, and Zexion rolled his eyes and groaned.

Genesis handed back your work, and other than some small errors—poor rounding and negative signs—everything was pretty much right but problem 6, which he wrote in the right answer for you.

"Thanks." you said shoving it into your notebook, then that into your backpack.

"Class," Auron said, "There is no homework unless you don't finish it in class. We will go over this work in class tomorrow. For the first day, not bad. All of you except for Reno."

"Yeah, yeah." Reno mumbled as he walked back to his desk and gathered his things.

The bell went off soon after that, and everyone stood up and grabbed their things and headed for the door.

You, Shikamaru, and Naminé all headed back to the sophomore hall, talking about what a strict teacher Sir Auron was.

Naminé also had history next, so the two of you broke off from Shikamaru once you got him back to the proper hallway, then headed off.

"Hey you survived." Roxas said as you walked up. He was waiting outside the history room.

"Yeah, Naminé is in the class with me, too. It's pretty nice, actually, I know most everyone in there. There was this one girl, Paine, she was intense, but seemed really cool, you know?"

"Sure." He laughed, "So, math makes you chatty?"

"No, finally getting out of a 'no talking zone' makes me chatty." You corrected, and Naminé nodded in agreement.

"Sir Auron is...well, the rumors are true." She said, and as they talked you looked in through the window on the door to the history room.

"Whoa, that room his huge!" You gushed.

They both laughed at you, then Naminé explained, "We don't break up history classes grade-wise here. We do it by subject. There is ancient history, modern history, government, and history of specific societies."

"And we're lucky enough to be in ancient...joy of joys." Roxas said.

"Could be worse. Could be government." You shrugged. "I wonder if I could convince them my 9th grade civics class counts as government, and get out of taking it."

"Oh no you don't. If I have to take it, so do you." Roxas scolded, and then he opened the door to the large circular room and began to lead you and Naminé off to some seats.

You were almost to a good row when someone called out, "Hey! Hot Stuff Jr.!"

You cringed, and kept walking along behind Roxas.

"No, no, no. She's Smalls now."

"Hey, Smalls, get over here."

You held your book up so it covered your face and tried to keep going but they were persistent. You looked around and saw Zack and Gippal were nearly falling out of their seats as they tried to wave you over.

"≈≈≈≈, I think that—" Roxas began, stopping to look back at the juniors that were having a frenzy, but you were trying so hard to pretend not to notice them that you walked right into his back.

"Yeah...I know...keep going..." you said, putting your hands on his shoulders and pushing him lightly up the stairs.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈!"

"Get back here!" Zack and Gippal hollered.

"Are they okay?" Naminé asked with a confused expression.

"No idea." You said, covering your face, you were turning red from their calling at you so ridiculously in front of all these people. It was definitely starting to get the attention of everyone in the room.

"Roxas!" Hayner called out from the top row of seats, waving you guys up there to where he, Pence, Olette, Tidus, and Wakka were already sitting.

"Should you maybe go see what—" Roxas tried to say, but before he could even get the words out, you had been Gippal-napped.

He grabbed you around the waist and began to carry you back down the stairs and over to the opposite side of the room where he and his friends had been sitting.

"Gippal! Let me go!" You fussed and struggled against him, but there wasn't really much you could do. Roxas and Naminé watched helplessly and with slightly amused smiles as you were dragged off and smushed into a seat between Zack and Gippal.

"So glad you could join us." Gippal said as he set you down.

"Yeah, really nice of you." Zack nodded.

"I just couldn't stay away." You glared at them both.

"Oh come on, don't be like that. We hardly get to see you during the school day." Zack said noting your pout as you looked over at your friends from your grade. Riku, Xion, and Sora had just walked in, and joined with the rest of the group.

"You guys are at my house all the time though. I see you outside of school."

"What's wrong with seeing us during both?" Gippal shrugged.

"Yeah, both is good."

"Alright, well I'm here now. How are your days going?" You asked them, putting your book and notebook on the table.

"Fine."

"Whatever."

They answered, then Zack added, "What about you?"

"Good, nothing seems like it will be too hard." You said with a light shrug.

"It starts off that way, and then BOOM! You fail everything." Gippal said while doodling on his notebook. It was clear he wasn't going to be opening his textbook, or paying attention in the slightest.

"That's just you." Axel said from the row behind you. He and Reno were sitting behind you with a guy who had long blonde hair.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, this is Deidara. He's new too." Reno said, gesturing at the blonde next to him.

"Oh, are you an exchange student, or just new?"

"Exchange." He shrugged. "You know any of the kids from my world in your year?"

"Yeah, Shikamaru? His locker is next to mine."

"Oh, Shikky, yeah. Bit of a wise ass." He nodded.

"And you're not?" Axel scoffed.

"Oh! Don't look now, but is that Selphie I see coming in?" Reno said with a devilish smile as he elbowed Axel. You looked at the door and sure enough Kairi and Selphie had just walked into the room.

"Here we go agian." Zack mumbled putting his head down and fixing his book so it stood up on its own and he could hide behind it.

"What is it? What's wrong guys? She's really nice." You asked, noticing that they were all trying to hide.

"She's like the female version of Zack!" Gippal exclaimed, sinking into his chair and covering his face with his notebook.

"Hey!" Zack snapped.

The two girls didn't go up to join with the others in your grade. Instead, they took a seat at the first available seats.

"Tell me I'm wrong, and I'll take it back." Gippal offered.

"You're wrong!" Zack said fiercely.

"No I'm not." Gippal shook his head at him.

You then noticed Selphie's eye had landed on you, and she cocked her head to the side and looked at you with an amazed expression. 'Zack Fair?' She mouthed.

You rolled your eyes and shook your head. She just grinned and rested her chin on her hands as she eyed the boys sitting around you. You tried to mouth 'you should come up here', but someone began shaking you before you finished.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈? ≈≈≈≈≈≈! I am talking to you!" Gippal turned you to face him.

"What?"

"I said—"

"Oh don't even bother listening to him. He's full of it." Zack said slapping away Gippal's hands form your shoulders.

A blonde boy walked up to the row behind you and sat beside Reno.

"Hey Demdem, what's up?" Reno asked.

"Not much, just got lost on the way over. God there are so many people in this class!" He marveled.

"There are always tons of people in this class. No one wants to take government or SS." Axel said, you figured SS was shorthand for specific societies.

Then you heard the same boy whisper quiet loudly to Axel, "Hey, is that her?"

"Yeah, that's ≈≈≈≈≈≈." Axel said, not even trying to whisper since the boy had already done such a terrible job of keeping their conversation quiet.

"Zack was right."

You turned around to look at Zack, who suddenly seem absolutely fascinated with the carving made on the table in front of him. You decided to look back behind you, where you caught the new boy staring at you.

"Hey there. I'm ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." You offered him your hand. He got a bit wide eyed and nervous looking.

"What's my name again, Ax?" He mumbled, taking your hand and shaking it up and down slowly many time, like he forgot how to shake as well.

"This is Demyx. The village idiot, apparently." Reno said, pulling Demyx's hand away from yours, since it was obvious he wasn't about to let go any time soon.

"Aw, he finally stole your crown? I'm sorry Reno. I know it's been with you for such a long time, this must be hard for you." Gippal said, and Reno glared at him.

"Nice to meet you Demyx." You ignored them all.

"I'm Demyx." He said, his cheeks a blazing pink, and Zack cracked up beside you.

"Smooth as butter." Gippal shook his head.

If possible, he got even redder, "I'm sorry, you're just...well you're beautiful." All the boys scoffed and groaned

"Could you be more subtle?" Axel rolled his eyes.

"What, you guys don't think—"

"Demyx, time for you to shut up now, yeah?" Zack threw a crumpled up piece of paper at him, and you elbowed him.

"Don't be mean to him. I like him." You said with a big goofy grin. No one had ever flat out said something like that to your face before.

"Only cause he called you pretty." Gippal scoffed.

"I still like him." You shrugged, opening your notebook and writing the date in the top corner to give yourself something to do other than continue that conversation. Zack cleared his throat and his hand slid over to your notebook and he pulled it away from you. You sighed at him as he also took your pen and began to write something, covering whatever it was with his hand so you couldn't see it. He looked at what he wrote, back at you, then back at his writing and then continued.

When he finished he slid it back to you, careful not to slide it close enough to you that Gippal could see it from your other side. Written in messy, chicken scratch letters was, 'You like me better, right?'

"Zack!" You stifled a laugh.

He quickly pulled the notebook back from you, scratched out the first line he wrote, and then began writing something else.

"So who is the teacher for this class anyway?" You asked Gippal, thinking Zack would only take longer with you watching him.

"Cait Sith. If you didn't think this town was weird before, you will after this." Gippal answered, leaning back in his chair so it was balancing on two legs. This put him within range of Axel dropping paper shreddings down the back of his collar.

Zack slid the notebook back to you, and you laughed again. 'I thought you were pretty first.' Was written under the blacked out line.

"You didn't _say_  it first." You taunted him, and he took back the notebook and scratched out the line, and began to write again.

What looked like a black and white cat walking upright and wearing boots strutted into the room and hopped onto the desk in the center of the circular room, then hit a button to turn on the projector that displayed slides on the flat wall above the door where there were no seats.

"You've got to be kidding me." You deadpanned.

"Told ya."Gippal smirked.

Your notebook was sent back to you again, this time 'Will you go out with me?' was written on it. You shot Zack a look, and he quickly added, 'Just one date.'

You took your notebook away from him, saying, "I'll ask Cloud." He dramatically reached over and wrote 'Nooooooooooooo' before you took your pen away from him too.

"Everyone, quiet, quiet please." Cait said as the bell to begin class rang. "I am sure you are all very excited to start a new year." He paused, as if waiting for applause or something, but the only sound to fill the silence was an awkward cough. "And I'm sure you are even more excited to hear about this year's travel destination." 

"Wait, what?" You quickly began tapping at Zack with the back of your hand while staring at the slides that just popped up on the spring of a beachy, sunny looking island.

"That's right. We get vacation days in style. Bet you're happy you're here now." He said smugly.

"For those of you who are new, allow me to explain. Our town sits on the western hemisphere of this planet. On the eastern hemisphere there is a massive volcano that erupts regularly every October, like clockwork. We are in no danger from the eruption itself, however the planet's small size and strong winds mean the ash will fill the atmosphere and block out the light for a period, creating a volcanic winter that will last roughly 3 months."

You looked at Zack flatly, "What the fuck? Why do people live here?" He just shushed you, clearly getting excited with Gippal as they looked at the screen and tried to guess the vacation location.

"During this time, it is more cost effective to take the student body off planet and enjoy a cultural learning experience than it is to try to remain and heat and power the school."

"That can't be true." You scoffed, but Axel, Reno, Zack and Gippal all turned to glare at you and said "Shhh!"

"As many of you know, last year's trip was to Orience, where politics were—" He began rambling about what everyone had experienced last year, and everyone seemed like it was painful to listen to him talk about what already happened. They just wanted to know where they were going this  _year_. It took around 10 minutes for him to wrap up his speech about the valuable lessons learned last year and moved on, "To continue our journey to gaining knowledge and cultural understanding, this year I am pleased to announce we will be traveling to one of the richest, oldest societies in the explored universe. With records of history dating back thousands of years, this world has potentially the most well established—"

"Ohmygod." Gippal groaned, falling forward onto the table and hitting his head against it lightly. People looked like they wanted to strangle the funny little talking cat, though he seemed completely obvious to all of their anxious energies and kept on with his lecture at a leisurely pace. Even Demyx looked like he was starting to get fidgety with anticipation as Caith Sith began to talk about the religious crusades the world was famous for.

"Which is why I have decided to start our study of Ancient Societies and worlds here, with the very same world we will be traveling to later in the semester; Spira." He was almost so causal about finally dropping the name of the world that you almost missed it. People began to slowly gasp in realization that he finally said it, and then the slide on the projector finally changed from the beach to a map with 'SPIRA' written in big letters across the top.

Gippal sprang upright in his seat and looked at Zack with his mouth hanging open. You leaned back in your chair as the two excitedly chattered away at lightning speed from either side of you. 

"Gippal is from Spira." Axel explained, and his enthusiasm suddenly became more understandable. Still you didn't know why Zack was so excited. They both looked like toddlers with a sugar high babbling at each other rapidly.

"Yes, yes, it's very exciting isn't it? But you know what's even more exciting? The first of the machina wars!"

**∞**

It was hard to say if anyone took in a single word Cait Sith said after the announcement you were going to Spira, but he taught on all the same. You at least took down a few bullet points before the conversation around you got too distracting for you to focus on the class material.

The bell rang, and you got up to gather your things, only to see that Axel had conked out on the table and was dead asleep. Reno and Demyx had been flicking scraps of paper onto Axel while he slept, and made a huge mess of their table.

"Wow, you're one of the smart kids, aren't you?" Gippal said, taking your notebook out of your hand and flipping through it. It was certainly true you were more studious than any of them were, considering Axel spent the whole class asleep, Zack and Gippal didn't shut up for a single second, and you saw Demyx had headphones in his ears and was silently jamming and had been for who knows how long.

"Depends on who you're comparing me to." You said, watching with a slightly exasperated expression as Reno leaned back too far in his chair and nearly fell over.

"Well, whatever floats your boat. Anyway, you coming with us or what?" He asked as he handed you your notebook back.

"Going with you where?" You asked blankly.

"Lunch?" Zack said, showing you his watch. It was just a few minutes past noon.

"Oh. Right. Sure, lead the way." You said, putting a hand on Axel's shoulder and giving him a shake.

"Aw, ≈≈≈≈≈≈! We were just gonna leave him in here." Reno sighed, but it was too late and Axel began to stir.

"Boys are jerks." You shook your head at them and Gippal scoffed.

"What? We didn't draw on him or tie his shoes together." He said haughtily. Just then Axel stood up and stumbled forward and tripped, catching himself at the last second by throwing his hands out onto the desk.

Demyx gave a sheepish chuckle, "Well...I did."

You gave him a hurt look, "Demyx, no." Here you thought he was going to be the first halfway decent one of them you had met.

"Sorry." He shrugged an apology with a small smile on his face.

"Come on, let's go." Reno said, snickering, but Axel grabbed him by the tie and pulled down on it so hard Reno came very near hitting his face on the table.

"No you don't. Not until you clean all this shit up." Axel growled, taking a fistful of the paper bits they had been throwing at him and stuffing them down the front of Reno's shirt.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈! What are you hanging around for? Let's get to lunch!" Sora called to you from the ground where your friends from your grade had apparently stopped to wait for you.

"Coming!" You said, trying to make your way down to them but Zack stopped you.

"I thought you were eating with us?"

"I'm sorry, are there two different lunch rooms or something?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, "Well, no, but we don't usually walk with the sophomore brigade."

"I'm a sophomore." You glared at him lightly and he quickly shook his head.

"Yeah, but you're not one of them."

"I'm kind of one of them." You shrugged.

"No, you're more like...one of us in disguise as one of them." He offered with an unconvincing smile.

"Uh-huh." You raised an eyebrow at him.

"You're a league of your own!" He tried again, and you rolled your eyes this time.

"Zack! Let's go." Gippal whined, getting tired of waiting.

"Oh come on, I'm really trying here." He completely ignoring Gippal.

"I'll see you later." You smirked lightly as you walked passed him and began to go down the rows of table to get to Sora.

"Catch ya later Hotstuff Jr." Axel and Reno said in unison and you turned back to give them a quick glare before continuing on your way.

"Zack! I am hungry!" Gippal snapped, shoving him lightly to get his attention. Clearly, he didn't like being ignored.

"Alright already." He sighed, gathering his things and turning to knock the papers out of Reno's hand just as he had almost gotten all of them picked up.

You trotted up to where Sora was waiting for you, the other apparently having gone ahead.

"So, some trip huh? Spira!" Sora said excitedly as you approached.

"Yeah! Though I still don't understand why people voluntarily live by a giant volcano." You said.

"We don't live  _right_ by it." He shrugged with a causal smile as he began to lead you out of the room and down the hall.

"Oh sure, you don't get the lava. Just the poisonous air."

"It's not that poisonous by the time it gets here."

You deadpanned at him, "Well, that's a relief."

He laughed, "Isn't Midgar one of the most polluted cities out there?"

You opened your mouth to say something, then stopped and shrugged. "You've got me there."

"Do you know anything about Spira?" He asked, getting that excited look on his face again.

"Well we just had an hour long lecture about it, so..."

"No, I mean Spira now, not it's wars and stuff."

"The wars and stuff are the reason why it's the way it is now."

He glared at you lightly, "You sound like Riku."

You laughed, "All I know is Gippal is from there. If you want to know about it, you should ask him." You pointed over at the water fountain where you saw Gippal and Zack had stopped on their way to the lunch room.

"I don't think Gippal has ever spoken to me in my life." He shook his head.

"Oh, well, consider yourself lucky." You joked.

"I heard that, smalls." Gippal called, flicking some water at you as he finished up with the fountain.

"Stop calling me that." Was all you said back to him before rounding the corner and continuing towards the lunchroom. Or so you thought.

"Here we are." Sora said, stopping and opening a locker.

"Where are we?" You asked, looking around. You didn't really recognize this part of the school.

"...Our hallway." He laughed at your surprised face. "Wow, it must be hard being stuck all the way down at the other end of the hall."

"God this school is ridiculous! Everything is identical and completely foreign at the same time! I'm going to need to start putting post-its everywhere." You ranted, looking around at the hall for anything that was in any way stand out so you could recognize it in the future.

"Well, here. You can start with my locker." He handed you a stack of post-its and a pen. You smiled and laughed as you wrote 'Sora's Locker' on the post-it then stuck it to the face of his locker while he put his books away. He pointed out Riku's locker to you, and you stuck a note on it, then you went down and put a note on your own locker. You didn't really need to put one on Roxas' since it was right next to yours, but you figured it would annoy him so you put one on there anyway.

"Oh come on ≈≈≈≈≈, you never leave a paper trail. It's the first rule in the book." Shikamaru said as he walked up and got into his locker.

"What book? Living off the grid 101? Tax evasion for dummies?" You rolled your eyes, putting away your books before writing another sticky note.

"Alright smartass, so where's the cafeteria?"

"Haven't gotten that far. Small stuff first." You shrugged, taking the sticky labeled 'Shikky' and sticking it to Shikamaru's forehead before walking off down the hall back towards Sora. Of course, he took off without you, but you found Olette not too far away, and the two of your made your way to the lunch room.

"So, about this trip...how's it work exactly? Big dorms or something?" You asked as you walked along.

"Well, last year they had us break into groups of three. They pick a leader for each group and they have to check in with the faculty. We get our own mini gummi ships, but they also have some rooms available on world if you want them."

"Groups of three, huh? Who picks the groups?" You asked as you found the large double doors that very obviously lead to the cafeteria. The two of you fell into the lunch line, and you looked around the large room full of tables swimming with people you didn't recognize.

"We do. To a point. There are around 300 kids in each grade, so they pick 100 from each to make the groups. We find out a few months in advance who will be making the groups, so there's plenty of time to talk it over with your friends and stuff."

"So, let me get this straight...they just let children group up and run off on a strange world?"

She paused for a moment, not sure how to answer, then finally said, "Well, they start to turn P.E. into training and survival skills lessons."

"Oh, well okay then." You continued to look at her like she was a crazy person.

"Well, you make it sound bad!" She gave you an exasperated sigh as she handed you a lunch tray.

" _I_ make it sound bad?" You scoffed, "I'm the only one being logical!"

"It's a fun trip, you're just over thinking it." She shook her head at you as she held her tray up for the lunch man to fill. It actually looked pretty good, there was some corn, greens, jello, and a square slice of pizza. Nothing like the gray mush you got back in Midgar.

"Next!" A raspy, deep voice called. You nearly jumped as you handed your tray over and saw who you thought was the lunch lady that just served Olette. The lunch 'lady' turned out to be a man with very long hair, tied back in dreads, with severe, bushy sideburns. You kept quiet while he filled your tray, but as soon as you got the tray back you quickly turned to Olette.

"Does he need a hair net for his face?" You whispered as she led you over to the line where you paid for your food.

"Be nice to Mr. Xaldin!" She elbowed you, but laughed all the same.

After you paid, you ran back over to Olette, clinging to her like a lost puppy.

"We usually sit over there when it's cold outside." She said, gesturing with her head at the table near the doors to the doors that lead outside, where you saw Riku, Sora, and Roxas sitting, as well as some of the other boys you knew you heard the names of but still didn't totally know yet, and some completely new people.

As you walked over to the nearly full table, Riku and Roxas slid apart from each other to make room for the two of you. You grinned a little as you sat down next to Riku, feeling more welcome here than you ever did at your old school.

The boys were all deep in conversation about Blitzball, and you were trying to keep up when the three girls on the opposite side of the table cut through the boy's conversation.

"Hey, you must be ≈≈≈≈≈≈!" The blonde girl with the ponytail said. She was sitting next to Paine, the junior in your math class.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" You asked, finding it much harder than she apparently did to talk over the boys as Sora and Tidus began fiercely arguing which position was best in Blitz.

"You're the talk of the town, kid! It's not every day Cloud gets a sister. I'm Rikku by the way." She said with a bright smile.

"Rikku? Like..." You looked right next to you at Riku and she sighed.

"Yeah. Mines with two K's though..."

"Just call her annoying. It's what we do." Riku said, and she flung her carrots at him.

"Meanie." She huffed.

"Whatever." Riku replied, biting into his sandwich like he really didn't give a shit.

"Anyway, this is Yunie!" The blonde went on, pointing out the girl with shoulder length brown hair who was sitting next to Tidus.

"Yuna." She smiled at you and you nodded.

"Nice to meet you."

As everyone began to eat their lunches, the subject changed to what sports they were going to go out for later today, as well as the clubs they were going to join. You weren't sure you were going to go out for anything at all, not really being much of a participator in school activities, but they all seemed really excited about everything.

Eventually all you had left on your tray was your jello, and Roxas held up a pudding cup.

"Trade you?"

"Deal." You nodded, reaching past Olette and handing over the jello to him. You then noticed that instead of a lunch tray he had a plastic bag, and Sora had a lunch box, "So why do you guys bring food from home? The lunch here is really good." You said as you opened the pudding.

"You just had to ask..." Riku sighed. You didn't even realize he was listening into the conversation.

"My mother...and Sora." Roxas rolled his eyes, and Sora jumped into the conversation.

"Hey!"

"What, am I lying?" Roxas glared at him.

"Well, no, but—"

The two began squabbling, and Riku took over the explanation, "You ever seen the show 'Me, Myself, and My Heartless?'"

"The soap opera from, like, 20 years ago?" You laughed, "I think my mom might have watched it."

"That's their mom. She was an actress back in the day."

"Really? That's so cool, Ro—"

He stopped you form breaking up the fright between Roxas and Sora, "It's not cool. They have literally the most dysfunctional family I've ever seen, and I haven't seen my dad or brothers for years."

"Oh, you either?" You gave a light laugh before seeing his dry expression and quickly putting a spoonful of pudding in your mouth so you wouldn't say something else insensitive. "Sorry."

"Don't be. This town's just not quite as perfect as it seems. Their dad? Son of Ansem the Wise, brilliant inventor turned scorned scientist across the galaxy."

"Wow. Their parents are famous and brilliant..."

"Their parents are washed up snooty rich types who care more about themselves than their sons. That's part of why Ven left, I bet."

"Ah, the mysterious Ven again."

"Oh he would love you calling him mysterious, I can tell you that." Riku laughed.

"How are they so normal? Their parents sound crazy."

"You think they're normal?" He scoffed, and you looked over to see the jello you had given Roxas was now running down Sora's hair and dripping onto the table.

"Two reasons, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. One, my mom's a health freak and makes everything for us herself. Two, if she didn't, Sora might eat something that would send him into a hyperactive frenzy." Roxas said glaring at Sora still.

"That and she's scared Xaldin is going to poison the food one day. She thinks he's a loose canon." Sora said, as Olette helped him pick the jello out of his hair only to have him throw it right back at Roxas.

You looked down at the plate of food you had just eaten and wondered if their mother had a point, when someone called your name from another table that was about as rowdy as yours was.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈! Over here!" Yuffie called, waving you over to her table.

"Yuffie, come on." You gave her a tired look. You were already sitting with your friends, you didn't want to leave everyone to go hang out with other people.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, you get your cute butt over here right now!" Yuffie got to her feet and gave you a stern look.

"Yuffie!" You glared daggers at her for shouting that across the lunchroom, and Riku snickered from beside you.

"So help me I will send Gippal over!" She threatened and you saw Gippal stand up right next to her and lean his elbow on her shoulder.

You were about to get up when Rikku slammed her hands down on the table and stood up, "Tuh'd oui pimmo ran, (Don't you bully her,) Gippal!"

"E's hud kuhhy pimmo ran. E's zicd kuhhy syhryhtma ran y meddma (I'm not gonna bully her. I'm just gonna manhandle her a little)." Gippal called back, making you blink and look in-between the two of them feeling very confused.

"Did someone turn the English off? Am I having a stroke?" You nudged Riku, looking at him for an explanation.

"Gippal and Rikku are Al Bhed." He said.

"What's an Al Bhed?"

"Belg uh cusauha ouin ufh cewa! (Pick on someone your own size!)"

Gippal made his way over with a nefarious look on his face "Hu uha ec so cewa! E ys dra ymbry syma, dra aht ymm, dra pa ymm, dra sekrdo! Huha crymm dnisb sa! (No one is my size! I am the alpha male, the end all, the be all, the mighty! None shall trump me!)"

"That's an Al Bhed." Riku rolled his eyes. "I can barely understand it, but trust me. He's an idiot is basically what he's saying."

"Oh, you understand it?"

"It's a foreign language option here. I've done it for 2 years and barely speak a lick." He shrugged.

"Kut oui'na y faentu! (God you're a weirdo!)"

"You too sweetcheeks!" Gippal scoffed at her, then he put his hand over your head. "E's dygehk drec fedr sa (I'm taking this with me)." He pulled you up and you sighed aggressively as you knocked his hand off your head and followed behind him like a good captive as you walked back tot their table.

Zack, Cloud, Tifa, Yuffie, and Vincent were all sitting there with empty lunch trays.

"Hey kiddo, how's the first day going?" Cloud asked, shoving Zack over so you could sit next to him.

"Good. I don't like your body guard though." You glared at Gippal as he took a seat.

"I asked them not to do that." Cloud said, shooting Zack and Yuffie a look as well. "There's no arguing with them."

"Don't you forget it." Yuffie said smugly.

"They meant well, at least. We just wanted to see how you were doing." Tifa said.

"I'm great. I traded Roxas for his pudding." You shrugged, thinking that was about the biggest news in your life at the present moment and you swirled the pudding around a bit before taking another bite of it.

"Oooooo, Roxas. He's a big sweetie." Yuffie shot Tifa a meaningful glance, and you puffed your bangs out of your eyes tiredly.

"He's just my friend." You assured them.

"Oh sure, that's how it starts." Yuffie shrugged.

"Leave her alone. He's a nice kid. It's good they're friends." Cloud said, taking a casual bite of his pizza.

"We're nice kids." Zack piped up, gesturing at himself and Gippal.

"Yeah, in a parallel universe." Tifa mumbled.

"Well, it's too bad you think that. Because we're hijacking your sister." Gippal said to Cloud, who brushed his comment off with a scoff.

"Have you guys had history yet?" Zack asked them.

"No, why?" Tifa looked between Zack and Gippal curiously.

"Because, we're doing the school trip again this year." Gippal said suavely.

"And we were thinking ≈≈≈≈≈≈ should be in our group!" Zack finished, beaming as he threw an arm around you and the other around Gippal.

"No." Cloud said simply.

"Oh come on!" Zack fussed.

"Yeah, we'll take good care of her! Besides, who else would she go with that you trust?"

"You think we trust you?" Tifa laughed in Gippal's face.

"Besides, maybe she wants to go with  _Roxas._ " Yuffie grinned.

"Yuffie! Drop it!" You snapped.

"You're blushing!" She sang.

"It's rage!" You growled.

"You certainly seem to be enjoying that pudding."

"Because it's pudding!" You rolled your eyes, then sat back in your seat, done trying to argue with her. It would be easier to ignore her.

The bell rang, and as you gathered up your trash Cloud said to Zack and Gippal, "You two leave her alone. She'll only go with you if that's what she wants." They both shot you excited looks, and you quickly looked away. "And Yuffie...you leave her alone too."

"Or what, you'll beat me up?" She scoffed.

"No, but ≈≈≈≈≈≈ might." He grinned, and you shrugged. If she kept it up, you just might.

"Come on Hot Stuff Jr., let's get you to class." Tifa said, putting an arm around your shoulder and leading you out of the lunchroom.

"Hey, Axel and Reno call me that too."

"They what?" Cloud grumbled.

"Of course they do. She is a lot like you." Tifa said with a shrug.

"Yeah, that's why they're calling her that." He rolled his eyes, but you both decided to ignore his comments as Tifa lead you down the hall then pointed you in the right direction for your hall. 

**∞**

**Don't worry, the this is hopefully the last entirely school-centered chapter. I think the day will end and you'll be at home and have done...home things...by the end of the next chapter.**

**Try and guess which class is next for a chocobuck? I didn't really hide anything in there this chapter, so I guess we'll just play a guessing game.**

**Also, for another chocobuck, can you tell me what chapter in the original version we're up to here? Like we're in chapter 5 of this story, but chapter 5 of the original is not in the same place. Which chapter is?**

**And finally, for another single chocobuck, the song title I chose for this chapter was 'High School Never Ends'...who sings it? It's a pretty popular song and band, so someone out there should be able to get it.**

**Get them chocobucks!** **ೕ(˃̵ᴗ˂̵ ๑)**

 


	6. Chapter 6

**For you chocobuck hunters, this chapter doesn't really have anything hidden in it. I'll put some bonus questions at the end for you!**

**∞**

You found Roxas standing in front of his locker shaking his head.

"Something wrong, puddin'?" You asked cheerily as you got into your locker to get your backpack and schedule to see what class you had next.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He asked with an amused smile as he peeled the sticky note off his locker that said "Roxy" on it.

"How do you know I did it?" You shrugged.

"Because this one says 'my locker!' genius." He said, peeling the note off your locker.

You scoffed, "I don't have time for you. I have to get to...poetry..." You glared at your schedule. "Oh come on, you can't be serious. An entire class devoted to poetry?"

"Yeah, I know, it sucks. It's how we do English here. Like with history, we have four courses and you pick which to take each year. Ancient lit, current lit, poetry, and writing."

"Well...shit." You sighed, grabbing a notebook and looking in your locker for the poetry book. It was small and had flowers on the cover, making you groan in disgust.

"Sorry if I'm not sympathetic, but I don't have time for you. I have poetry." He smirked at you, then closed his locker and began walking away.

"You do? Hey! Wait up!" You chased after him, thinking now you not only had someone you knew in the class, but you also had someone to show you the way too. "So, punk does poetry?"

"Do you even know how to shut up?" He growled, and the two of you made your way to class.

After a few more quips with Roxas, you finally arrived at the classroom and were surprised to find Cloud, Tifa, Zack, and Gippal all sitting there.

"Hey...what are you doing here?" You asked them blankly as you took the seat in front of Cloud and next to Zack.

"We like to have one class a year with each other, and we normally pick English." Cloud shrugged.

"Aw, that's cute." You grinned at him then looked at Zack who just seemed happy to be complimented by you.

"Shut up." Cloud sighed.

"He's the reason you're in this class too. He wanted all of us to be together." Tifa said, sharing in your moment of smirking at Cloud while he pretended not to be as soft as he really was. He just ignored you both. "Well, whether he admits it or not, it's great to have you here."

"Thanks, Tifa." You said, then you shot Gippal a look, "So, you willingly took poetry?"

"I'm gonna Dr. Seuss the shit out of this class." He said with a confident smile.

The bell rang and class began with the typical syllabus review, followed shortly by the most pointless lecture you had ever heard on rhyme schemes. You were then told to break into a group of two and write a few poems with each other. You first turned to Roxas, only to see that he had paired up with Pence already. They both gave you apologetic shrugs and you sighed as you looked behind you to see Cloud and Tifa had paired up as well. You assumed Zack and Gippal would have paired up, and started looking at the other students in the room who you didn't know when Zack cleared his throat. You looked over and saw him smiling his charming smile while wiggling his eyebrows at you.

"You're ditching Gippal for me?" You asked and Gippal glared at you.

"He ditched me the second you walked in the room."

"Don't feel bad ≈≈≈≈≈≈, Gippal's like the old handbag in the closet. You bring him out when you want the comfort of familiar company, but he's not exactly what you want to bring when you're going to a party." Tifa said, and Gippal directed his glare at her now instead.

"And Tifa is like the—"

"Hey, watch yourself." Cloud cut him off, and he sighed and mumbled something in Al Bhed.

"Now, class, if you would, please spend the next few minutes composing a short poem for your partner to read." The teacher said, and you blew the hair out of your eyes as you set off to work. After a minute or two, Zack slipped a paper onto your desk and watched patiently as you finished up your line and then gave him your paper.

He scanned it over quickly then rolled his eyes as he read it out loud,  _"On my desk there sits a dumb book, upon whose contents I will never look. For if I did I might just vomit. I'd rather be taken out by a comet."_  When he finished he looked up at you like he was exasperated and disappointed.

"What? It's poetic."

"Sure..."

"Fine let's see what you've got." You cleared your throat and picked up his paper, " _Think of a bee. You are its knees. I'm going to ask you out. Say yes, please."_ You put the paper down and shot him a dry look.

You opened your mouth to say something, but Cloud answered for you, "No. Ask again. Go on, I dare you."

"Cloud, I will not—" Zack began.

"If that sentence doesn't end 'will not ask your sister out again,' you might want to rethink finishing it."

"Oh come on, I let you date Tifa." Zack huffed.

"She's not your sister." He shot back.

"She's practically my sister."

"I practically am." Tifa shrugged.

"Helping or hurting Tifa?" Cloud shot her a look.

"Sorry, but I think it's nice that our little Zacky has taken an interest in her." She laughed as she put a hand on Zack's shoulder.

"Yeah Cloud. It's nice." Zack crossed his arms.

"Well, regardless I don't think I have anything to worry about." Cloud smirked.

"Why?" Zack and Tifa both asked.

"Because, I think we just found the one girl the ol' Fair charm doesn't work on." Cloud nodded a gesture at you, and they just then realized that you had turned the other way to talk to Roxas and Pence, and were laughing about the shitty poems they had come up with.

The bell rang, and you turned to give a quick wave to Cloud and Tifa, and a nod at Zack and Gippal before heading out of the room with Roxas and Pence while continuing your conversation.

"Unbelievable." Zack sighed while Cloud snickered.

"Who's the old handbag now?" Gippal said as he stood up with a vindicated smile on his face. Zack slapped the books out of his hands and tripped him.

**∞**

"No way, it sounds boring as shit!" You said, as Roxas and Pence asked you for the third time if you would reconsider coming to watch blitz tryouts.

"Well it's not!" Roxas shot back.

"There are few things in life as enjoyable as watching Sora and Hayner make fools of themselves in front of the upperclassmen." Pence said.

"Don't you guys have homework you could be doing instead?"

They both turned to each other and laughed, "Homework? You're funny."

"Well what do you normally do after school?" You rolled your eyes at them.

"We usually just hang out. Skate out front, go to the park, you know...just relax for a bit." Roxas shrugged.

"Well, I don't know what I'm gonna do after school, but watching sports tryouts is not high on the list of possibilities."

"You could do your homework from the bleachers." Pence offered, and you sighed.

"I guess..."

"And if you don't finish by the time tryouts are over, I will personally take you to the library and sit with you until you do." Roxas said.

"My hero." You scoffed, bumping into him lightly as you walked, and your elbow shocked his forearm when you hit him.

"Hey!" He laughed as he rubbed his arm.

"Sorry, happens all the time. Staticky hair I guess." You smiled sheepishly as you ran a hand through your hair and began to twist the ends around your fingers.

"Anyway, what class do you guys have? I have science..." Pence groaned.

"Al Bhed." Roxas said dryly.

"Art!" You beamed and they both glared daggers at you.

"You'll be with Riku then." Roxas said.

"Good luck with that." Pence snickered to himself.

"Why? Is he really good or something?" You asked.

They both cracked up, "No, it's the one thing he's not good at." Roxas said.

"Seriously, in middle school we called him 'the boy so golden his hair was silver.' But he just has this  _thing_  with art. It's almost impressive how bad he is."

"Why would you call him that? It doesn't make any sense." You laughed.

"It makes enough sense." Pence shrugged, then he stopped short, "Whoa, Lulu looks pissed."

"Lulu always looks—" Roxas also stopped so you did too, and the three of you looked ahead to where a tall woman with long dark braided hair and eyes that shot through you like lightning. "Reroute, reroute!" He said to Pence quickly and the boys started to take off down the nearest hall, but she called out before they could get away.

"Rostar, get back here. Bring your friend." She said sternly, and Roxas turned to Pence who shot him a terrified look. "Not him."

You exchanged a similar look with Roxas before the two of you began to walk over to her.

"Did we do something wrong or—?" He began as you got closer to the intense woman.

"With me." She said as she turned on her heel and began to walk down the hall.

"Won't we be late for class?" You asked, terrified of this woman, sure, but also not wanting to be late on your first day.

"Your schedule has just changed." She said calmly, and you and Roxas looked at each other with perplexed expressions.

You shot him a look asking if he knew what that meant, and he shook his head and shrugged. You were stuck just following on behind her hoping she would write you a note for your art teacher explaining that she was the one who kept you from getting to class.

Eventually, she lead you both in the direction of the gym.

"Um, are we in trouble, ma'am? What exactly did we do?" Roxas asked, and you were happy you weren't the only one totally confused by what was going on here.

"No. You're both joining my black magic training class."

"Black...magic?" Roxas repeated, though he didn't sound confused to you, it was more like disbelief. "I think you have me confused with my brother."

"I'm not mistaken, Roxas." She said simply, and she pushed open the door to the gym revealing a completely different looking area than the one you had played dodge ball in just a few hours ago. There were padded mats everywhere and in the corner it looked almost like a yoga studio with small personal mats on the ground surrounded by candles and burning incense. The lights were off in the gym, and the candles were the only source of light in the room. There were a few other kids in there, Demyx, Zexion, and Axel among the ones you recognized. The girl Yuna from lunch and the girl from homeroom, Aerith, were also there.

"Look, I've never shown any kind of magical talent in my life, this is—"

"Would you just trust me? You're worse than Ventus." She sighed, irritated at the constant stream of questions the two of you seemed to have. Her comment seemed to shut him up pretty quickly, but you still felt very much like speaking out. You tried to keep a lid on it though, afraid to evoke the wrath of Lulu. "Go pick a mat, and stand with the rest of the class."

"O...kay." Roxas said, and he looked at you before beginning to walk over to Axel, who was looking at the two of you curiously. You followed along behind him and picked out one of the yoga mats near the back while Roxas and Axel chatted with each other.

"Hey, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. Didn't know you had any magical talent." Demyx said, walking over to you as you stood there looking lost and confused.

"I don't...She just pulled us out of the hallway and told us we were in this class now."

He scratched his cheek and chuckled, "You know Lu. She works in mysterious ways...Well, I guess you might not actually know her, but still. She does."

"I just don't get it. I've never been able to do magic in my life."

"Seriously?"

"Well, I've never really tried. It's illegal to learn in Midgar without a permit. And yet here they teach it in school, apparently.

"Well, it makes sense that you can't have people flinging fireballs through city streets, but out here there's no real danger if you're trained...so they train us if we show an aptitude. Otherwise you still need a permit to learn outside of school."

You shrugged and nodded. "Okay, sure, makes sense. I still don't know what  _I'm_  doing here, but sure."

"Maybe you a gift you don't know about yet." He shrugged and you laughed.

"Ha, yeah right."

"No, really! It happens in unexpected places. Like Axel, he is a natural born fire elemental. And Yunie is a white mage, same as Aerith. And I am a water elemental."

"Oh cool. How did you find out?" You asked and he chuckled and held out his hand, which became enveloped in a water stream that began to circle around it.

"It was pretty obvious." He shrugged.

"If you're all done standing around and talking, can we get started please?" Lulu said as she walked over to the front of the mats with a blue haired girl who wasn't in a school uniform. "Aqua, start the lesson." She said to her, then she walked over to you as the blue haired girl called everyone's attention to her. "What's your name?"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." You said nervously. It looked like she was glaring at you.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ what?"

"Well, Strife, I guess. Technically, Ballad."

"Ballad?" She raised an eyebrow at you, and you nodded and gave a light shrug. "Where are you from?"

"Midgar. I just moved here last night."

"I see...do you have any idea why I pulled you into this class?"

"None whatsoever."

"You will soon." She turned on her heel and you shot a look at Roxas who had been listening in on your conversation, and he just shook his head.

Lulu walked up to the front of the mats and stood by Aqua, and watched silently as she instructed the class in breathing techniques and light stretching as she talked about focusing your energy.

Eventually Lulu took over and had Aqua run out to tell your teacher and Roxas' that you weren't going to be in class, and she began to lead you all in a breathing exercise. You found yourself sitting cross-legged on the ground with your hands in a prayer position by your heart. You were supposed to have your eyes closed and be 'feeling the essence of your energy around you, breathing in life to it and exhaling power into it,' but it just didn't make any sense to you. You peeked around and saw that Axel had a ball of fire hovering between his hands, which were in the same position as yours but a few inches apart. As he breathed in the ball got bigger, and as he breathed out it flickered and took a shape similar to the flame you'd see on the end of a candle, then it returned to its round ball shape as he inhaled again.

You figured it must be easy to focus on 'your energy' if you know what it was and how to do it, but you just felt like you were in a very strange yoga class where everyone else belong but you. The people around you all manifested some kind of ball of energy in front of them; Axel had his fire, Demyx had a sphere of water, Zexion had what looked like a swirling dark vortex contained between his hands, and Yuna and Aerith both had glowing white spheres. Other students in the class had energy spheres of varying colors and intensities, and the only other person peering around cluelessly was Roxas. That made you feel better at least.

After around fifteen minutes maybe, Aqua had returned and Lulu told everyone to get up and begin practicing with someone who had a similar elemental tendency for a while. Everyone began to pair off with one another, leaving you and Roxas to sit dejectedly on your mats.

People broke off into different corners of the gym, and began playing what you thought looked almost like a game of slow motion Ping-Pong where they passed their sphere of energy to their partner who swirled it around themselves and then sent it back. It actually looked kind of fun, you thought, but here you were sitting on your mat with Roxas a few feet away, both of you too sacred to stand up.

"You two, on your feet." Lulu came over to you while Aqua began to walk around the room and give direction where it was necessary. You and Roxas both got up to your feet and Lulu held out her hand for Roxas to take. He did so tentatively, and he winced at her touch.

"Ow, what the—"

"Resist it. Counteract it." She said, tightening her grip. "Close your eyes and focus. Will your energy to take physical shape." He closed his eyes and looked like he was concentrating very hard. "Don't forget to breathe." He let out a deep breath like he had been holding it in. You watched with great anticipation, and slowly but surely her hand became coated with a light layering of frost.

"Whoa, Roxy!" You exclaimed, seeing the ice crystals becoming more solidified. He opened his eyes and completely lost his focus, causing the ice layer to stop and melt against Lulu's skin.

"Congratulations, looks like you do have some of magical talent after all." She said, giving him his hand back.

"But...but how?" He looked at his own hand with a mystified expression.

"How indeed." She sighed, "Your family has quite the history of magical talent, I don't know why you are so surprised." Then she turned to you. You held your hand out eagerly for her, thinking she would be able to give it a squeeze and suddenly you would have magical powers too.

As she took hold of you wondered what kind of elemental you were. You waited for her hand to heat up or cool down, like you assumed she had done when she felt that Roxas was an ice elemental, but nothing happened. She furrowed her brow, then closed her eyes to concentrate for a moment, then she let out a deep breath as she opened them again.

"What did you say your name was again?"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈...≈≈≈≈≈≈ Bal—"

"Ballad. Right." She turned your hand over and pushed back your sleeve so she could see your wrist. She scanned it for something, but shook her head. "Show me your other arm." She said, and you quickly complied, looking at Roxas to see if he had a clue what she was doing. He just shrugged. She then looked up at your face and you found it hard to maintain eye contact with her. You looked over at Roxas again as she peered around your face, then her eyes zeroed in on a small scar on your neck. "How did you get that?" She asked, reaching for it to further examine it.

"I don't know. I've always had it, I guess."

"Aqua, why don't you take everyone outside to practice? It's a lovely day, we shouldn't waste it." She called out, though her eyes stayed glued to you.

"Alright." Aqua said, looking a tad confused but following her directions anyway. Everyone began to make for the double doors at the back of the gym that apparently lead outside. Roxas begrudgingly joined them and walked off, leaving you alone with Lulu.

"Are you aware that for the past 40 years, ShinRa has been monitoring the birth rates of the magically gifted?"

You gave a nervous chuckle, "Uhhh, no. I didn't."

"Of course not. It's not exactly common knowledge." She turned your face to one side so she could look at the scar on your neck again, "But years ago I worked for them as a researcher specializing in magic advancement and technology. Occasionally, when a child was born with potentially dangerous energy levels, a small piece of Nethicite was inserted under the skin to keep it under control until the child came to an age where they could be taught to control it."

"Nethicite?" You repeated, feeling the scar on your neck. Now that you really felt it, it did kind seem like there might be something hard under the surface there. Though you had never really noticed it before, so maybe you were just being paranoid.

"It's a rare stone that negates all magic it comes in contact with. It's not standard procedure, but when has ShinRa ever done anything following standard procedure?" She said, feeling the scar now herself.

"You think I have one of these stones in me? Based off what? Just because I'm from Midgar?"

"No. I think you do because I know what I saw in the hallway. It was weak, and clearly uncontrolled, but I know what I saw. And yet, when I touch you know, there is no trace of any magic in you. Worse, my own magic goes dead once it hits you."

You laughed, "What—that in the hall? I just shocked him, it was only static."

"Only static? You think I can't tell the difference between magic and static?"

You sighed, "This is crazy."

"Do you find yourself shocking yourself and others often?" She raised a brow at you.

"Well...kind of. Now that I think about it."

"That's not mere static. It's electricity. You are brimming with electrical energy, capped off by a stone that can barely contain it, and is breaking down under the pressure after all these years."

"Sorry, but I don't believe you." You forced her hand away from your neck and felt it again for yourself. "Someone would have told me. My mother would have told me. If ShinRa did something—she would have told me. I  _hate_  ShinRa."

"Maybe it wasn't your mother's decision." She said looking you dead in the eye, and your eyes went wide. Your father. Not only did he work there, he did illegal research there. If he did something to you with their technology, something that may or may not have been 'standard procedure,' your mother might have no way of knowing.

"You said you worked at ShinRa, right? Did you know any other Ballad's? Did you know my father?"

She gave you a very careful, very meaningful look, "I hate ShinRa too."

You held still for a moment, just feeling the small hard lump hiding under the tiny, raised scar on your neck. "Can you get rid of it?"

"I can."

"Do it."

**∞**

She took you down to the nurses office, which you thought was a bit odd since you were about to have a rather intrusive surgical procedure, but it was her show now, not yours.

There were a few kids there, some laying down on cots, and some sitting in the chairs waiting to be seen by one of the two female nurses who were walking around, but she walked right past them to the door at the back of the room. They didn't so much as look twice, so you figured they must have known her, or maybe she had an office back there.

"Wait here." She said before going into the back room and shutting the door. You did, listening closely as you heard her begin to speak once inside, then another voice answered her.

They spoke for a moment, then suddenly the door opened and you saw, "...Roxas?" You stared at him, but something seemed wrong. He was taller, his eyes were different, and he had on glasses. "Wha—"

The next thing you knew, he reached forward tapped you on the temple with two fingers, and you fell to the ground like a bag of bricks, completely unconscious.

"Crude." Lulu commented.

"But effective." He shrugged.

"Just get her in here, Ventus. And get that stone out."

"How? I can't get near it."

"The old fashioned way." Lulu said simply, and he chuckled and mumbled 'maniac.' as he knelt down and scooped you up and took you into the back room.

**∞**

You felt like you had woken up, but you couldn't move a muscle. Your eyes were still shut, but suddenly your other senses came flooding back to you. You could suddenly hear talking, and feel hands on you.

"No one should ever give you a scalpel. You're a madwoman."

"We got it, didn't we?" Lulu scoffed.

"Yeah, but the blood. My god." The boy even sounded like Roxas, though he spoke in a different way than Roxas. His voice was slightly deeper, and he had bit of a lazy drawl, like he was sleepy or something.

"You got it cleaned up though, right?"

"Yeah, now that the stone's out, piece of cake. Even got rid of the scar. She'll wake up and wont even feel like we did anything to her at all." He said, and you felt a finger run over the spot on your neck where a scar once sat.

"How nice of you. Call my nephew in here; have him take her home when she wakes up. Don't tell him anything though, I'm sure he'll overreact. Have her keep the stone on her until tomorrow, when we have another training session. She has a lot of pent up energy, and it's much safer if we keep it capped off until she knows how to use it. The bell should ring any minute now...are you alright for the night?"

"Me? I'm fine."

"I have to speak to Auron now."

"Go on then." He said, then he pulled his hand away from you, "So...Roxas is in your class now?" He asked in a tentative voice, and you figured Lulu hadn't left yet.

"Yes he is. Imagine that."

"What element is he?"

"Ice."

He gave a soft laugh, "That figures." Your head was lifted up, and something was slipped around it down to your neck. It felt like a necklace, or something similar was placed around your neck.

"Have a good night, Ventus." You heard a door open and close, and then that was it until the bell rang and he sighed lightly. You heard beeping, like he was dialing a phone, and then he spoke.

"Hey, can you swing by my office? I have something for you...Yes it's  _my_ office! Ass."

He hung up the phone and fell quiet again, until he started humming. You tried to focus on getting yourself to wake up by wiggling your toes and fingers. You felt like you had gotten your pinky to jolt just a bit before there was a rhythmic tapping on the door.

"Heya!" Zack's cheery voice called out. "What do you—why is ≈≈≈≈≈≈ here?"

"Good, you know each other." He yawned.

"Yeah...we do...what's she doing here?"

"Oh, you know kids these days. Always getting themselves hurt in some way or another."

"Why is she passed out though?"

"She not. She's only sleeping. See?" You jumped as you were suddenly tapped on the temple again, and all feeling and control came back to you again. Your eyes opened and you sat up, looking over at the two boys who were watching you.

"Morning." You mumbled, holding a hand up to your forehead. Nothing hurt really, but you did feel groggy and a little out of it.

"Morning..." Zack crossed his arms as you felt your neck and sighed. All traces of the scar were gone, and smooth skin was in its place. There was a small black stone the size of your thumbnail wrapped in a twisted up paperclip hanging from a plain silver chain. It was rustic, but it worked.

"Faked a tummy ache to get out of art." You said, and Zack gave you a cross look. "What? Tell me you've never done it."

"Why do I get the feeling you're lying to me?" He looked between you and Ven, who you were staring at now. He didn't have his glasses on anymore, and if he didn't look quite so tried it would have been just like looking at Roxas.

"You look just like—"

"Roxas, I know. I'm Ventus. Call me Ven. I go by Ven for—"'

"≈≈≈≈≈." Zack called your attention back.

"Why do I get the feeling you're being paranoid?" You rolled your eyes and got to your feet. You had been laying down on a cot in the back room, with Ven in a chair right by your bed, and Zack standing right beside him.

"Well, come on then...Lu said to get you h—oh. Oh..." He suddenly looked crushed. "I can't take you home. I have blitz tryouts..."

"I could take her home." Ven shrugged.

"No." Zack said quickly.

"Why not? She your girlfriend or something?" He scoffed with a cheeky grin as he leaned back in his chair, then added, "I promise I won't try to steal her."

You scoffed now too, glaring at Ven and his smug smile, mumbling under your breath, "I promise not to get stolen." as you sat back down since it was clear you weren't going to be leaving yet.

"No, she's not. Worse. Much worse. She's Cloud's sister."

He laughed, "Cloud doesn't have a sister." Then the smile dropped of his face, "Does he?"

"He does." You nodded.

"So mitts off." Zack added.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Ven glared at him, and Zack got that pained expression on his face again.

"Ooooohhhh, I'm already gonna be late, I really have to—"

"I'm perfectly capable of getting around on my own you know." You crossed your arms.

"If Lulu finds out she'll kill me." Zack sighed.

"She'll kill me worse." Ven huffed.

"Look, I was gonna watch tryouts anyway, just go on to the gym. Send Roxas to get me, we were gonna watch together."

"Do _not_  send Roxas here! Don't." Ven said quickly.

"Send...Olette?"

"Olette! Much better." Ven nodded.

"Okay! Right. I'll get her here as quick as I can." He said, beginning to charge out the door.

"Don't tell Roxas where you're sending her! Please!" Ven called after him, but he was out the door so quickly you weren't sure if he head or not.

"Wow." You laughed.

"What?" He narrowed his eyes at you.

"Nothing. I just thought the mysterious older Rostar was like...a hardened criminal or something. Not a nurse who's scared of his brother."

He gave a disgruntled huff, "Okay, first of all, I just kept you alive while Lu hacked away at you. A 'thanks' would be nice. Second, I'm a doctor, not a nurse. Not that there is anything wrong with nurses, mind you. And third, I'm not scared of him. I just don't feel like getting screamed at today, okay? It's not on the schedule."

You sighed, "You're right. I'm sorry, I didn't...Well, thank you." You thought you would leave it at that, but then you couldn't stop yourself, "I just don't get it. Why the walking on eggshells? Why all the secrecy? You live in the same town, and your brothers. What could you have possibly done to make him flinch at the sound of your name? I mean, you're not exactly Voldemort."

"Our family's weird. He blames me. Well, our family is weird and brutal and angy, and  _they_  are the ones that hate me, but I left. And now helooks like me, so they take it out on him."

"Why, what did you do?"

"Oh, you know. Just spoiled the family name and lost the family fortune. The usual stuff."

"How'd you manage that? You're like...18?"

"17, and believe it or not it all started when I was maybe a few months old. So there. Ruined the family reputation before I could walk. What have you done with your life?" He asked in a mocking tone, though he was obviously covering up real feelings.

"Well, I had a stone in my neck my whole life put there by a sleazy government corporation that ruined my family life, and now I have to keep wearing it like it's some kind of charm so I don't blow myself up accidentally."

"That hardly compares. Years of being stigmatized versus a tiny thing you didn't even know about?"

"Yeah, exactly. I didn't know about it. Makes it a bit more upsetting. At least you know what's going on with you." You said, playing with the stone as it hung from your neck. It was so small and cold and smooth, it didn't seem like it was possible it could do anything at all except maybe skip nicely on a lake. And yet apparently it had been controlling you to some extent your whole life.

"Oh please, you were just...probed a bit. I'm the family disappointment."

"Whatever." You shook your head, and the two of you fell silent for a moment while you examined the stone some more and he sat back in his chair.

He grinned to himself, "Mysterious."

"What?" You eyed him as he sat there smiling like an idiot.

He laughed, "You called me  _mysterious_."

"I thought you were, they way everyone tiptoes around the subject. Where do you live anyway? Roxas said you didn't live at home with them anymore."

"Nah, I don't. I have an apartment in the first district." He shrugged, then sighed, "I would love to be mysterious...but apparently I can't shut up about mysel."

"How do you pay for it?"

"By working here."

"What about school?"

"I take math, science, and history, then I come back here and work."

"Too good for English class?" You laughed.

"I can read on my own time." He shot back.

"Do you?"

"...No, but I could if I wanted to. I'm a doctor, I don't need poetry or literature."

"Can you even spell the word 'doctor?'"

"Careful now." He warned, glaring slightly.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Olette called from the front of the nurse's office.

"Gotta go." You shrugged, getting to your feet. "Thanks again."

"Yeah, no problem. Well hey, don't stick around on my account. It's not like I'm dying of boredom in here!" He called after you, but you ignored him completely as you walked out and saw Olette looking around for you with a very confused expression on her face.

"Hey!" You said as you walked up to her.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, what's going on? Zack just—"

"Yeah, sorry for whatever he said, you can probably ignore it. Come on, let's go." You said, pulling her along out of the nurse's office and into the hallway.

"But what were you doing there?"

"Oh, you know. I wanted to meet Ven. Get the whole Rostar experience." You shrugged, then quickly added, "Don't tell Roxas."

"Yeah, okay. I guess." She sighed, still looking like she didn't fully get it. "It's just...Zack said..."

"Ignore him. Always ignore him."

"So...what did you think of Ven?" She asked, figuring she wouldn't be able to later once you joined up with Roxas and Pence.

"Well...I don't get it, really. I mean, he's just a guy. Just a normal guy. A bit arrogant, but just a regular guy. I don't get the whole brothers at odds with each other thing. Roxas is so nice, and Ven seems fine, I don't see why they can't get along."

"I dunno. They're boys." She shrugged, holding the door open to the blitz gym, which was near the regular gym but the other side of the hall.

"Yeah, I guess." You said as you walked into the gym and marveled at the stone bleachers that stacked up high on the walls, circled around the large sphere of water filling in the middle of it all. There were guys and girls standing around on the floor stretching and talking, and a few people sitting around on the bleachers to watch. You saw Zack and Gippal throwing punches at each other and dodging them trying to pump themselves up. Cloud called Zack's name and he looked away, then Gippal landed a punch right in Zack's face, "Just big dumb boys."

"Come on. Our medium sized dumb boys are waving us up." She said as she tried not to laugh at Zack, and the two of you walked up to the level of the bleachers were Roxas, Xion, and Pence were sitting with popsicles in hand, as if they were about to watch a show.

You joined with them and they offered you some ice cream. Apparently they ransacked the cafeteria for them just to celebrate the occasion of Hayner and Sora embarrassing themselves. However, it took so long for the water sphere to fill up that you had all finished your ice cream and you and Olette got bored and pulled our your homework to start before any game play actually began. When they finally did get in there, they mostly just ran boring skill assessment drills. It wasn't until the last fifteen minutes of the two-hour tryouts that they actually broke into two teams and started a scrimmage, and by then you were all bored and over it. Hayner did get hit in the head by a stray shot, and you got to watch Tifa school Zack's ass as she faked him out then scored a goal, so it was almost worth the sore butt you had from sitting on cold stone bleachers.

Riku, Cloud, Tifa, and Zack were all really good, but the true starts of the show in there were Tidus, Wakka, and surprisingly to you, Gippal. He was the goal keeper, but he was able to stop some of the trick shots Tidus was firing at him like they were nothing, and you were pretty sure a direct shot from Tidus could punch a hole in the side of a boat. You had seen professional players with less kicking power.

When the practice finally ended and everyone got out of the water sphere and headed back to the locker rooms, you gathered up all your school things and headed for your locker to get everything you needed to take home and put away the homework you had already finished.

"So why don't you play blitz?" You asked Roxas as he dug around his locker for his chem book.

"I'll play it for fun, but it's just not my sport. What about you?"

You shrugged, "Better things to do than get sweaty everyday."

"Well, you don't really sweat underwater, but I guess I get it."

"I don't know. I used to play sports, but I guess I'd rather focus on settling in and getting adjusted to life and school here."

"Well, adjust away. It's more fun to go watch a blitz game than it is to play anyway." He shrugged, pulling a skateboard out of his locker before shutting it and picking up his backpack. He kicked the board up to his hand, and tucked it under his arm.

"Besides, there's concessions snacks for the viewers." You grinned, thinking you definitely saw a concessions window in the blitz gym with the words "Nachos" and "Soft Pretzels" written clearly.

"Still want me to take you to the library?" He asked as you picked up your bag and closed your locker as well.

"Nah, I finished most of my work already. I think I'd just like to go home for a bit."

"Okay, sounds good. I usually wait for Riku, Hayner, and Sora out front, but if you want to just leave we can."

"No, it's okay. We can wait for them." You said, and he nodded and began to lead the way down the hallway. Xion, Olette, and Pence joined you both as you passed them in the hall, then the group of you headed out to the front of the school where you sat on the benches around the circle garden just outside the school doors. You sat there with Olette and Xion, talking about where Naminé and Kairi had gone off to, while Roxas skateboarded around and Pence took action shots of him for his photography class.

"Kairi and Naminé are neighbors, so they usually go home together." Olette explained when you asked why they weren't with you guys.

"They usually hang out with us after school, but I guess with things being as weird as they are between her and Sora and Riku, she decided to just go home." Xion sighed.

"It's too bad what happened to them. They were all clearly so close."

"Yeah, a little too close."

"Xion!" Olette shook her head. "I just wish we could do something to help."

"No meddling." Xion glared at her.

"Yeah, like not make anyone do or say anything they don't want to do...just speed up the forgiving process." You said, ignoring Xion as you looked past her to Olette.

"Exactly! Riku's too stubborn, Sora's trying to pretend nothing happened, and Kairi feels too embarrassed and ashamed to apologize. If we just gave them a little push—"

"Guys, I don't like this." Xion interrupted.

"Maybe we just give Kairi a pep talk. You know, get her motivated to make things right, instead of just running away from them whenever she sees them." You offered.

"Yeah! We could do a sleepover night at her house sometime soon, and see if we can help speed things along!"

"I don't want any part of it." Xion huffed.

"Oh come on, Xion! What's wrong with wanting your friend group to get back together?" You sighed.

"These things need to happen naturally. If you force it, you'll only make it worse."

You and Olette exchanged a quick glance, as if weighing what Xion had just said, then Olette smiled, "So, sleepover Saturday?"

"Sleepover Saturday!" You beamed, and Xion facepalmed.

Within the next few minutes, your friends along with Cloud and his group came romping out the front doors of the school, all of them brimming with excitement and energy left over form their first blitz practice of the season, even if it was just tryouts. Everyone was chattering and playing around as you all walked home from school, and you were jumping from one conversation to the next so quickly it made your head spin. You were almost sad to say goodbye to everyone when you finally got to your house, until realized that half of them were coming over and crashed your living room and kitchen, and you realized you'd never be able to get rid of these people.

It made you feel strangely warm inside to have a house so full of people who were chatting away and happy and wanting you to be a part of it all. It was only your second day in your new life, and yet you felt so comfortable and at home already. Things were definitely weirder around here and your old miserable life was still trying to claw its way back to you, you thought as you clutched at the small black stone that hung around your neck and was hidden under your shirt, but it felt like you had a place here. Like you could be happy here. 

**∞**

**I'm changing the rules for how you get a chocobuck, by the way. In order to get your buck, you have to actually make some kind of comment about the story along with your answer. I kept getting so excited to see all the comments I was raking up last chapter, only to see that they were one word answers for chocbuck questions. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it just feels like maybe you wouldn't have commented at all if there wasn't something in it for you, which makes me a little sad because I'm so desperate for feedback all the time.**

**_So here we go:_ **

**•For 5 Chocobucks, Zack's poem is actually inspired by a line in an old British sitcom. Anyone out there know what the show is called?**

**•Vun veja lrulupilgc dnyhcmyda drec, drah yhcfan ed eh Al Bhed: Hysa dra drnaa ela lnays vmyjunc oui lyh lruuca vnus frah belgehk dra byccfunt vun Yhcas dra Feca'c lusbidan.**

**•For up to 5 Chocobucks, name–and no cheating with google–some of Tidus' blitz shooting moves. (hint: there are 5, you get a buck for each you can name)** **  
**

**•For up to 4 Chocobucks, FFXV just had some new footage shown, and three previously unnamed character got names. What are they? (You get a buck for each name you can come up with.) You can also get a buck for naming the black haired girl often seen with Luna, since apparently not many people know her name either.**

**•For 1 Chocobuck, The Rostar brothers (Sora, Roxas, and Ventus, in case you haven't been paying attention) have a famous Disney Villain aunt that is briefly introduced in the original story. Can you remember who is it?**

**•For 1 Chocobuck, name the game Nethicite comes from.**

 • **For 1 Chocobuck, Square Enix held a contest where they named a Heartless after the winner in KH1. What is the name of the winner/heartless?  
**

 

 


	7. Chapter 7

******Chocobuck hunters:**

**-For $10, there are two sets of song lyrics from the same artist hanging around somewhere in the chapter. Find them both, tell me the artist name and the songs they come from. You get 10 bucks for this because I'm just that confident no one has heard of this artist. Prove me wrong, if you dare!!**

**-$2 to anyone who can give me any kind of theory they have for where the story is going. It's still just a rewrite, so yeah, eventually it's going to go to the same place as the original, but I think you're gonna find that we're not gonna get there the same way as that one. A lot more is going to be introduced a lot earlier, so I just wanna hear your thoughts on what you think is going to happen. Penny for your thoughts meets $2 chocobucks for your thoughts.** **  
**

**-$1 to anyone who can correctly guess who might be involved in the cliffy at the end. (spoiler alert, the chappy ends on a cliffy. But not a good thought provoking or danger inciting one though, so don't worry.)**

**Remember: in order to earn your bucks, you have to actually leave a comment about the story too. You can't just go buck hunting and ignore the content. So I guess, if you're going after the $2 question one you have to leave a comment about this particular chapter, and then give your thoughts.**

**∞**

The next few days seemed to fly by as you settled into your new life, until suddenly you had almost been in Traverse Town for two weeks. You would wake up to your mother, Tifa, and Yuffie making something in the kitchen for you and Cloud, and sometimes Zack would come over to help wake you up in the morning...which was always a terrible and embarrassing way to start the day, but he seemed to love doing it. Riku liked to do his history homework in the morning, so sometimes you would wander out your bedroom window and across the tree over to his room and check your homework against his and review a little. Then you would walk to school with Cloud and whoever else happened to be at your house, then join your friends from your grade in homeroom.

In chem, you and Sasuke gradually became more vocal with each other during labs, mostly because you needed help or to double check that you were doing things right. Then depending on the day you either had PE or health, where the boys and girls were sent to different classrooms. This meant you got to meet a lot more of the girls in your grade, like Sakura and Ino, the pink and blonde haired exchange students. It also gave you and Olette plenty of time to pitch your idea for a sleepover to Kairi. She eventually agreed to host it this weekend, though you could tell having a social gathering was probably the last thing on her mind. You ignored this, thinking she could use some time with friends. She walked around the halls like a wounded animal, and would jump and ran at the sight of Sora and Riku. You felt like she needed a night to forget about it all and just relax with some friendly faces.

Then there was math, which was hard but always entertaining. Reno and Zexion would get into terrible fights that Auron usually broke up by bringing Reno back to the teacher's desk for the rest of the lesson. You and Naminé worked together whenever you could, so you usually finished working in class and didn't have homework. And on the rare occasions you didn't finish, you would go to the town library and see if Genesis was around to help.

In history you spent the class with Zack and his friends, struggling to stay focused over their constant chatter. None of them did their homework or bothered paying attention, so you had to make sure your notes were good since theirs would be no help to you. Later you would go over Naminé's notes during break or lunch to make sure everything was on track. It was weird; you almost forgot your friends from your grade were in the same class as you. It felt like you had two lives at school. There was the one where you hung out with upperclassman, and the one where you were with your own grade.

It made thing difficult during lunch because you never knew who to sit with. If you sat with your grade, then Yuffie would get fussy and drag you over eventually, and if you sat with Cloud than you felt like you were missing out on what your friends were doing. Eventually you just started rushing to lunch early and sitting alone, letting them choose to sit with you or not. This meant that your usual lunch bunch was a mix between the grades. They actually seemed to know each other better than you thought, they just didn't have a reason to hang out before now. Axel, Roxas, and Riku all knew each other form soccer, and Demyx and Sora knew each other from the swim team. And Sora and Riku both knew Zack and Gippal from Blitzball. Then of course Olette and Xion knew everyone from Selphie ranting about the junior boys, and Yuffie seemed to like the girls from your grade so she was always happy to see them sitting at the table with her. Cloud and Tifa would join you sometimes come over, but you got the feeling they were also trying to let you stand on your own and make friends without them hanging over your should all the time. Still, most of your friends were their friends, so they would drop by and hang out for a little bit everyday. It felt like you were merging the two friend groups together, and it made it much easier for you to find a place among them.

After lunch you had poetry class, which was boring and dumb, but Zack's poems always made you laugh...when he wasn't using them to ask you out. He decided that he would ask you out every Wednesday in class, so twice now you had to tell him you would only consider it once you felt you had become real friends first. He would always complain that you could become friends once you started dating, but you would answer him by asking to tell you what your middle name was, or what your favorite color was. Then you got to smirk at him and say 'you don't know me well enough to date me,' to his endless annoyance and Cloud's endless amusement.

Then there was your last class; elemental magic training. At first you were excited to get to learn about your magical abilities, but even after two weeks you still needed to wear the Nethicite around your neck when you weren't in class because you couldn't control yourself. As soon as you took it off, your hair would stand on end as electrical currents ran up and down your whole body. The force of it would rip through you and knock you flat on your ass. The first day you took it off you were sent flying to the ground and scorched the floor of the gym. Even Lulu couldn't get near you because of how violent the electrical storm became. She just had to contain the flow of lightning with Aqua's help so no other students would get hurt, and then they tried to talk you through the steps of locking your energy away and putting it under your control. It didn't work of course, and Ven had to be called in. He was an especially gifted white mage who was able to neutralize any damage to himself almost instantaneously, making him the only one who was able to fight his way through the electricity without it damaging him. He was able to get the stone back around your neck and control the situation for the day, and was called back every day since for similar reasons until eventually he just started showing up at the beginning of class as a precaution.

No matter how much you tried, you just couldn't get that much raw energy under your control. You were getting better at handling it though, you thought. You could remain vertical when the stone was off, and you were beginning to feel like you could compress it, so it was less violent. Even so, you were kept away from the other students and by Ven at all times to make sure things never got out of hand. This of course drove Roxas crazy, but he stopped leaving class as soon as his brother showed up after two missed lessons. Finally, he just settled on completely ignoring whatever corner of the room Ven was in. Much like what was going on today.

The other students were all off doing their breathing exercises with Aqua while Lulu took you to the back corner of the gym where Ven was sitting against the wall with a magazine looking bored. She would put a protect spell around you, confining you behind a wall of magical energy that was designed to stop attacks from coming in. However, you were utilizing the spells ability to keep anything you did from breaching the wall on the inside.

"You ready?" You asked as you gripped the chain holding the Nethicite stone around your neck and prepared to pull it off.

"Whenever you are." Lulu responded, flexing and bending her fingers as she prepared to shoot the protect spell at you. "Ventus?" She called to him when he didn't respond right away.

"Sure." Ven mumbled, flipping to the next page of his magazine.

"Could you at least pretend to be interested? This is really stressful!" You glared at him. He sighed and raised his eyes over the brim of his magazine and shot you a dry look. "Thank you." You rolled your eyes, then took in a deep breath as you pulled off the necklace. While it was still in your hand, your powers were rendered useless, but on Lulu's count you threw it as hard as you could over to Ven. The moment you threw it you began to light up like a Christmas tree as a physically painful amount of energy began to pour out of you in the form of sharp electrical currents. Quickly after you tossed the stone away, Lulu shot the protect spell around you, encasing you inside it. The electricity was confined to the sphere and filled it with swirling light, blocking all sight of you. From the outside, it looked like you were stuck in a raging snow glob.

"Come on, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. Control it." Lulu instructed.

'Easy for you to say...' You thought, clenching your fists and trying to find some way of calming the storm around you.

"Just breathe. Become one with this part of yourself. Don't fight it, embrace it." She said, and you let out the breath you had been holding since you had started. You released your fists and sank to the ground, sitting cross-legged like the others did during their breathing exercises. The lightning itself didn't hurt you—though it scorched the floors mercilessly—but the force of your energy pouring out after being pent up for so long drained you and felt oddly painful, like you were being shaking violently and continuously. You felt like a can of soda that got shaken up and opened, like you were exploding from within. How were you supposed to stop that? You tried just letting go, just letting the energy pour out as freely as you could, but that only made it worse. Lulu strained to contain the new and increased pressure, and you could see the field of the protect spell closing in on you as she struggled to keep it all inside.

"You could fight it a little." Ven mumbled as he rubbed the back of his neck, seeing the light inside the sphere grow brighter and the swirl of electricity quicken.

"Not helping, Ventus." Lulu snapped, now needing to use both hands to contain the protect spell.

"Maybe she just needs to exhaust all her energy. You know, let it all out. I mean she can't keep it up at this level for forever." Ven shrugged.

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying we just let her stay in there until she runs out of juice. There will be a window where all stocks are depleted, and we can let her out. Then she'll slowly being to build her energy back up, and she can learn to control it then, when it's just coming back and isn't so potent."

"I suppose it could work...but who knows how long it will take for her to energy to fully deplete? This is a lifetimes worth of energy we're talking."

Ven stood up and set the magazine aside and stood, "Not a lifetime. Just around, I dunno, 15, maybe 16 years? No big deal." He said as he began to walk right up to the sphere of energy and put a hand on it. He bit his cheek and hummed as he thought of how best to approach this. "Can you widen the field a bit? Gimme some room to work."

Lulu grit her teeth, then the protect spell that had been keeping a tight sphere around you expanded a few feet to include Ven into in. You could hear faint talking over the buzz of electricity, but you really had no idea what was going on. You jumped lightly as all of a sudden you saw Ven standing in front of you, holding a hand over his face as he fought his way through the lightning to get to you. You groaned, taking this as a sign that you had done something wrong and they were giving up and trying to get the stone back on you.

You stood up, completely frustrated, only to have him take hold of your hands instead of trying to put the necklace back on. "What the hell are you doing?" You shouted over the electricity and tried to pull away from him. You didn't care how good he was; there was no way he would be able to hold onto your arms with this much energy pouring out of you. The lightning began to stop flying around you in circles, and began to direct itself at him. "Let go! You'll get hurt!" You fought to get free, but he only tightened his grip.

"Would you stop fighting me? I'm trying to help you, dummy." He said with a pained expression and an irritated tone. You suddenly began to feel like the energy was being sucked out of you through where his hands were gripped around your wrists.

"How are you doing that?" You called over the now fiercely whirring lightning. It had changed from a streaming current circling around you to an intense looking crackling lightning that was striking him up his arms. You were watching his arms in horror as the charges licked his arms and scorched away the sleeves of his white button down shirt and left dark red burns. The lightning would leave him, you would see the terrible burns, then the burns would heal up and leave a layering of black charcoal over his arm that would just get burned up again the next second as another wave of lightning hit him.

"With surprising difficulty." He said through a clenched jaw. "Didn't think you had this much in you, to be honest."

"Ar...are you okay?" It looked like he was able to take care of himself, but it also looked really painful at the same time so you wondered how long he could keep this up.

"Will be in a second." He narrowed his eyes in focus as he started at your connected hands. You felt like the force that had been draining your energy increased tenfold. Little by little you began to feel like the intensity of the electricity was waning. You slowly began crumbling as you got more and more tired from literally being drained until you actually fell forward into Ven unable to hold yourself upright on your own any longer. He helped lower you to the ground and cradled your torso as he continued to try and dull the lightning storm. You didn't know how much time had passed, but it felt like a lifetime before the raging currents finally dulled to small buzzing sparks.

Lulu dropped the protect spell, and walked over, but you just continued to breath heavily as you started at the gym ceiling with your head on Ven's lap. "Is she okay?" She asked as she knelt beside the two of you. Small waves of the fizzling sparks would periodically radiate from you, but beside that the lighting had finally died out.

He put a hand on your forehead and nodded as he tried to catch his breath. "Y-yeah, she's alight....No big....deal." He panted as he turned his attention to the burned up sleeves of his charcoal caked shirt, and then to his arms where his abilities with white magic were automatically working to heal up any burn still on him. He looked at you with new found curiosity, before looking back at Lulu, "What'd you say her story was again?"

"Nevermind that. Get her back on her feet, the real lessons start now."

Over the next few minutes Ven got you some water and let you use him as a pillow while you slowly recovered until you were well enough to move around again, and then you were taken over to the mats to do some breathing exercises. This time around, you were able to really focus on the waves of radiating electricity and make move like you wanted them to. You would try to make them circle around your hands clockwise before letting it die out, then you would spin the next wave counter clockwise until you felt like the lightning wasn't so much pouring out of you, but was rather something you were willing to surface from within. Lulu let you sit for a while feeling out your power—since this was technically your first time actually experiencing any kind of control over it—before she began to talk you through some control exercise.

For the first time, you felt like you were able to handle this new part of yourself. You were dead tired, so it wasn't exactly strong electricity but it felt like it was yours now, and not just this force that was hidden within you.

The bell rang and everyone began leaving but you asked to stay and keep practicing, so Lulu asked Aqua to stay with you as you told Roxas to let Cloud know you were going to be home late. Aqua was a much gentler teacher than Lulu, and was more sympathetic to how difficult it was for you to complete the task she was asking. You felt clumsy with your magic, like there was no smooth flow to any of your movements, and you had to stare at your hands with great concentration every time you tried to make a fresh burst of electricity. You were so used to the sparks just ripping free from you as the liked, it was almost strange to try and call on them to appear on your own terms. When Aqua was showing you the technique of rolling your wrist and using your palm to generate a bolt rather than your fingers, she did the motion and had a streamlined bolt swirl around her hand like it was a ribbon...all without even looking at it.

Needless to say, you left the lesson feeling equal parts happy and frustrated with yourself.

"You'll get better at it. I promise. You're a natural, it's only going to take a few days for you to adjust." Aqua was saying as you had the final sips of the water Ven got you earlier while she rolled up the mats you had been using.

"I don't think I'll ever get the hang of it. Of feeling like this. I've only had that stupid Nethicite necklace off me for a couple of hours already, but every time I think I've gotten used to the feeling of my magic, it hits me like it's just so...sharp and painful." You held a hand over your chest where deep in your ribcage you could feel this buzzing electric sensation that turned violently painful every few minutes.

"Hmmm...well, a person with a strong elemental tendency always has a trace of their element swimming around inside them. For example, fire types often have very warm skin, and the opposite with ice. Lightning is a less common element to have a tendency towards, probably because of it's unpredictable and chaotic nature, but it's not unheard of...but I've never heard of it hurting before. Can I take a look?" She asked, holing out a glowing, healing hand. You nodded and she put her hand over your chest where you had just had your hand. She closed her eyes to focus and waited for another flare up.

She finally pulled her hand away and shook her head, "It feels like your natural element is a bit more active than in most people, but that could just be because this is the first time it's been allowed to exist in it's natural state within you. I bet you just need a little more time."

"No one else seems to need any more time." You deflated.

"Hey, don't say that. Don't compare yourself to others. You're all at different stages. Most of the others in the class, myself included, have been living with our magic freely flowing since the day we were born. It takes time. Just because you started late doesn't mean you can't catch up." She gave you a warm smile and put a reassuring hand on your shoulder.

You tried to smile back, but just as you did a sharp biting pain erupted from your core and left you doubled over. Her hand was still on you and charged with white magic, so she was able to feel the pain you did. Her eyes went wide and she tore her hand away from you. "That's...not possible..." She stared at you, looking almost frightened.

"What? What is it?" You asked worriedly, standing upright again now that the pain had passed as quickly as it had come.

"I...I need to speak with Lulu...Go to Ven. Wait with him in his office, tell him...just have him do a med-check. He'll know what's going on."

"Wait, what  _is_  going on?" You asked pointlessly, since she was already halfway down the hall. Not knowing what else to do, you decided to go to find Ven and see if you could get him to tell you anything. After going to the nurses' office and walking back to Ven's little office, you found him napping in his chair with the same magazine he was reading earlier over his face.

"Ven, wake up." You called out as you closed the door behind you.

He jumped at the sound of the door closing, causing the magazine to fall off and clatter on the ground, making him scramble upright and look around for what woke him up. He saw you standing there and quickly ran a hand through his hair and cleared his throat. "Oh...hey."

"Sorry to ruin your nap, but I need your help." You said as you walked over to him.

"I wasn't napping, I was meditating." He grumbled lightly, then did a poor job at hiding a yawn.

"You were snoring." You raised an eyebrow at him.

"It was...meditative...breathing. What do you want, exactly?" He changed the subject while looking around for his glasses.

"I'm having some weird pain and Aqua took a look and freaked out. She went to get Lulu, and told me to come wait here. Have you do a med-check, or something."

Not able to find his glasses on the desk, he sighed and decided to just forget about it and held out a hand for you, "Yeah, well, Aqua sees what she wants to see. Let's take a look." You took his hand and he turned it over so it was palm up and he ran his fingers down it. "Oh my god.."

"What? What is it?" You looked between your hand and his eyes, nearly panicking.

"You have really soft hands." He said simply and you clenched your jaw to resist the urge to punch him in the face.

"Really?" You glared daggers at him. "You're gonna do shit like that right now?"

He laughed, "What? You're okay. I promise." He patted you on the back of the hand before letting go of you and returning to sitting at his chair with his feet up on the desk.

You bit the inside of your cheek and put your hand over your chest again, trying to feel whatever it was that freaked Aqua out so badly...but everything felt quiet for once. Even the usually buzzing of electricity felt like it was calmer.

"Do you want something to be wrong with you? Because I can keep looking if you want." He said, noticing you standing around looking disappointed.

"No, it's just...she seemed so worried."

"I told you, she likes to overreact. You have free flowing electricity running through you now. It's gonna feel a little weird. Come on sit down, stop worrying about it."

"Sure, that's easy for you to say." You mumbled as you took a seat on the little cot in the corner of the room. "No one's ever put a hand on you then run away screaming."

"Shows what you know." He shot back with a playful smirk as he began to roll over to you in his desk chair. He held out a hand for you again, and you sighed as you reached out for him.

Almost as soon as he placed his hand over yours, the door swung open and Lulu walked in with Aqua at her heels.

"Do you feel it, Ventus?" Lulu asked as she walked over, taking your hand away from him and holding it herself.

"No. Feel what? You guys, she's fine." He said with a bit of a nervous laugh.

"That remains to be seen." Lulu replied, going into one of the cabinets and grabbing a finger prick and a couple of slides for the microscope.

"Whoa, chill. Don't just go sticking peop—" Ven began, but Lulu had already pressed the pin to your finger and draw a small bead of blood from it. "Alright, stop. What's going on?" Ven grabbed her arm as she was putting the blood on the slide.

Aqua spoke up, "Ven, I know what I felt. I don't know why you can't feel it, but it was there. It was." She said in a very slow and meaningful way. Ven looked between her and Lulu then let out a scoff of laughter.

"You're gonna have to be a little more specific than that."

"Ventus... _It_  was there." Aqua said again, and he shot her a curious look.

"You don't mean...No, come on guys. That makes no sense." He shook his head, then looked at the blood on the slide over Lulu's shoulder as she took it over to the microscope on the desk. "I would have felt it...I would have..."

You cut off his rambling as you suddenly let out a cry of pain as the sharp burning sensation returned. He and Aqua quickly rushed over, both putting a hand on you. Aqua took your hand and put her other one on your back in a comforting way, while Ven stuck his hand over half your face in an attempt to get at your forehead.

"Okay, I'm okay, everybody relax." You said, trying to push all their hands away—especially Ven's, which was still palming your face—but they were busy staring at each other.

"Did you feel it that time?" Aqua asked him quietly.

"But...How? Lulu?" Ven turned to Lulu, as if looking for an explanation.

"What? Someone tell me what's going on!" You demanded, grabbing Ven by the hand to get his attention.

"We're not sure yet." Lulu said, finally looking away from the microscope.

"I'm pretty sure." Ven staid defiantly, but she ignored him.

"Until I can confirm it without a doubt, I don't want either of you scaring her. I need to go through my old research documents. Aqua, are you free this evening?"

"Yes, of course. Whatever you need." She quickly said.

"Good. Meet me later, and bring Terra. I could use an extra pair of eyes."

"What about me?" Ven asked, and you got to your feet.

"What about  _me_?" You snapped, tried of being ignored.

"Monitor her tonight. Make sure the pain doesn't get any worse. If this is what we think it is, and it's just now surfacing, then it's surly going to get worse." Lulu said, gathering the slide with your blood on it and turning to leave the room. Aqua shot you a sympathetic look before following along after her.

Once it was just you and Ven alone in the room again, you balled up a fist and punched him hard in the arm.

"Ow! Hey, what the hell!?" He glared at you.

"Oh good, so I haven't suddenly turned invisible!" You glared right back, ready to punch him a second time if he tried to ignore you like that again.

"I'm sorry, it just got very tense in here!" He said as he began to rub at his arm where you hit him.

"Yeah, I noticed! Now quit playing the goddamn pronoun game and tell me what's going on. What is 'it' and why is it so damn scary you people wont talk to me about it?"

He groaned, "Look, you may or may not have a touch of something not very many people have. But we don't know for sure, so there's no reason to talk about it. Yet."

"I'll give you a reason to talk about it." You said, holding up your fist, and he gave you a look.

"How about I make you a deal; give Lulu a day to do her research thing and figure out if it's even possible for you to have this... _'it,_ ' and if she doesn't turn anything out by then, then I'll tell you everything, whether you have it or not. Until then, just sit in happy ignorance and pray your magic just has a really,  _really_  weird way of showing itself."

"You could tell me now, and stop playing games with me." You glared at him, and he reached for your still bawled up hand and uncurled your fingers so he could see the small bleeding spot where you had been pricked. He put his pointer finger over the spot and healed it up before letting you go again with a sigh.

"I'm not your enemy here. We're trying to help you."

"Then tell me what's going on." You begged.

"You don't get it. We're not going to go handing out life changing information without being sure we have a reason to."

You bit your cheek, "So it's serious then..."

"Maybe. We don't know yet. Don't start worrying about it until we do know."

"Well...what am I supposed to now?"

"I don't know about you, but I could go for some food."

"Food? You're hungry?" You shot him a look.

"What? I'm not the one with this thing hanging over my head." He smirked lightly.

"It's like you want me to punch you. Your face is just screaming 'please, hit me!'" You crossed your arms and got to your feet.

"Yeah, well punch me over a burger. I'm starving." He said as he got to his feet as well and threw his lab coat over the coat rack in the corner. He saw the ratty burned sleeves of his button up from earlier when he got in the middle of your lightning stream and quickly took it off and threw it in the trash, leaving him in a dark green undershirt which he promptly untucked. He looked in the shiny reflective metal on the gloves dispenser on his wall and ruffled up his hair a little before turning to you. "Ready?"

"...What are you doing?" You deadpanned, arms still crossed.

"Oh...it looked like you were getting ready to leave."

"I was...what are  _you_  doing?"

He shrugged, "Coming with you?"

"Oh, are you now? After ignoring me, palming my face, then refusing to tell me what's going on in the slightest?"

"Lu's orders." He laughed at your angry expression, "Wow, no wonder you and Roxas get along. You're grumpy." He held open the door for you.

"I think that's a little understandable right now, don't you?" You scoffed, but left the office all the same. Now that you were thinking about it, you were kind of hungry too. Lunch was a few hours ago, and magic practice was tough work.

"Alright, I'll give you that." He shrugged, then excitedly shut the door behind himself. "So! Where are we going?"

"Well, I don't have any money, so unless you're paying for two—"

"Which I'm not." He quickly threw in, "I have rent to pay this week."

"Then I guess I'm going home. We should have freezer pizzas or sandwiches."

"Hey, I'm not picky."

"What a relief. It'd be a real shame if the guy I'm being forced to hang out with didn't like my pantry's selection."

"Now I know you're trying to hurt me, but I for one am just happy for the company." He shot you a big cheeky grin, which you responded to by keeping the glare plastered to your face. "If you hadn't come along I'd have to wait for blitz practice to end before I could leave, in case any of those dummies try to drown themselves."

"Wait, is that what you do after school everyday?"

"Well, yeah. Partly. I'm supposed to make sure no one gets hurt in any of the sports teams. And it's not like Roxas and his little buddies who like to pretend the school is their personal skate park don't have their fair share of run-ins with me."

"Is it really okay for you to leave, then?"

"Yeah, who cares?" He shrugged. "They'll call me if there's an emergency. Besides, who can work on an empty stomach?"

"Okay..." It didn't sound like he should be leaving, but you were sure this carefree attitude he had suddenly adopted was a cover-up. They seemed panicked for you, so you didn't think he was going to let you ditch him. "Well, let's get going then. I'm sure you know the way better than I do." You said, thinking you normally went home with your friends or with your brother. This was kind of the first time you had to make the trip somewhat alone.

"Contrary what you might think, it's not like I've been stalking you and know where you live."

You laughed, "What, did you forget or something? I'm your neighbor. Well, I would be if you lived with your family."

He stopped short, "Oh my god, that's right...You're Cloud's sister...huh...never thought I'd be showing up at Cloud's house for snackies."

"Well, you're not. Not really. You're going to  _my_  house to steal  _my_  food." You gave him a light shove with your shoulder to get him moving again.

"You know, I can't quite decide who scares me more; you or Cloud."

"Oh yeah?" You smirked, "Good."

**∞**

You had gotten home and thrown a pizza in the oven and were waiting for it to cook while watching Ven make himself a monster of a sandwich.

"No wonder they don't let you stay in their house." You commented, referring to his parents as you watched him assemble his sandwich.

"You just wouldn't understand. It's all about the mustard, pickle, and potato chip ratio." He said, going ahead and adding another layer of chips between the ham and the turkey.

"We're about to eat a pizza..." You grimaced a bit as he slapped both overloaded slices of bread together and took a bite.

"There's like 20 minutes on the timer still." He said with a shrug and a full mouth. "Plenty of time. Wanna bite?"

"You're disgusting." You politely declined his offer as you heard the front door open. You heard the recognizable chatter of Zack, Gippal, and Tifa as soon as the door shut.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Tifa called out for you, probably after seeing you weren't out on the couch.

"In here." You called, leaning your elbows in the kitchen island after checking the time on the pizza again.

"Hey, so we were—what's he doing here?" Zack asked, stopping short as he caught sight of Ven while entering the kitchen.

"Oh, thanks." Ven rolled his eyes and took another bite.

"No, I mean, it's just...since when do you even come near this district?" Zack went on, heading over to the oven where he smelled something cooking.

"I came to check out the Strife pantry. You've been talking it up for years, I just had to see it for myself."

"He's here because I asked him to come. I was thinking of holding a little movie night. I mean, it is Friday after all." You said, pushing him away from the oven. Zack just beamed at you, completely ignoring the death threat written on your face that would have his name on it if he touched your pizza.

"That's a great idea!"

"What's a great idea?" Tifa asked as she walked into the kitchen with Gippal.

"Vennybear! It's not often we see you outta school and away from Lulu. Done being a super-freak for the day?" Gippal greeted.

Ven took a bite of his sandwich and glared at him for a while before drawling out a bitter "Yup..." in reply.

"I wanted to have a movie night tonight...do you think Could would be up for it?" You asked Tifa, trying to ignore the boys as Gippal now made his way over to the oven to check out what was going on in there too.

"Yeah, but...I thought you said you had a sleepover with the girls tonight?" She said, and you felt like you were hit with a brick.

"Oh crap, you're right."

"Hey, no reason she can't do both." Zack quickly said.

"Someone just wants to get some movie snuggles in under Cloudy's nose." Gippal snickered, and Zack stopped on his toes.

"Shut up."

"You look less guilty when you just ignore him." Ven taunted, and Zack made a move to smack him as well, but he darted to the other side of the island where Tifa was.

"Look, I'm just saying watch a few movies until her thing starts. Easy as pie." Zack said, defending his statement casually.

"Oh my god, Zack, please have your mom make her apple pie for us." Gippal said, throwing a hand over his heart like he just had some kind of spiritual revelation.

"On it!" He beamed, pulling out his cell phone.

"Well, I guess that settles that." Tifa shrugged.

"Where is Cloud, by the way?" You asked, noticing that he hadn't come home with them.

"He was voted one of the Blitz team captains. They had to stay back and go over schedules." Tifa explained, "But I'm sure he'd be fine if we started without him. I'll make some popcorn!"

"Great! I'll get Yuffie over here. She's sure to bring others with her, right?" You said, pulling out your phone.

"Hey, why does Yuffie have your number, but  _I_  don't?" Gippal asked with mock offence.

"Yeah, me either." Zack piped up, holding his cell phone away from his mouth so his mom couldn't hear that part as he was desperately begging her to make a pie.

"If I wanted you to have it, you would." You shot Gippal a look, knowing he would abuse the privilege and prank call you at odd hours of the day.

"Ha-ha, that's gotta sting." Ven snickered.

"Why, it's not like you have her number either." Gippal rolled his eyes.

"True, but I'm also not as desperate as you guys." He smirked, and Gippal made to throw the open bag of chips at him before Tifa caught his arm to stop him.

"Boys out of the kitchen please." She said.

"As a feminist, I'm afraid I just can't—"

"Out!" She snapped, and the three of them scurried out of the room. "God they're annoying. Remind me why you wanted to keep them around?" She pinched the bridge of her nose once they were gone.

"Well Zack and Gippal wouldn't leave even if I paid them to, and I kinda need Ven around right now."

"Why, is something wrong? Are you sick?" She asked, giving you a worried look.

"No, don't worry. Magic training isn't going as smoothly as I was hoping. I'm having trouble keeping all my energy under my control at all times...Basically I'm a little unstable, and Lulu asked him to be here and make sure I don't electrocute anyone or burn the house down." You dropped your head a bit embarrassedly, thinking that wasn't entirely untrue.

She put a sympathetic hand on your shoulder. This wasn't the first time you had expressed your frustration at not being as good at handling your magic as you wanted to be. "You'll get better at it. I hear Axel talking about how hard your working at getting it under control, I know you'll get the hang of it soon. Besides, if Ven is around, then you don't need to worry about it causing any trouble for anyone."

"I guess" You sighed, "How did he get so good at white magic anyway? He's not that much older than I am, yet he's so talented the school would rather have him on staff than as a student...and I'm not allowed to go home without a babysitter."

"Well, he's been with Lulu since he was a kid, probably training since the day he was kicked out of his house. So he's racked up 12 years of experience against you. Even if you are a fast learner, no one is that fast. Besides, isn't this technically day one for you? Give yourself a break."

"Thanks, I needed that." You said, and she gave your shoulder a squeeze. She quickly retracted her hand with an 'Ow!' as a small wave of lightning nipped at her fingers, but she laughed it off. "Sorry."

The pizza timer went off and she made her way over to the oven to get it, and you spun the timer around on the table absently as she went.

"So...Ven was kicked out of his house when he was a kid?"

"Oh, you didn't know? I just assumed Roxas might have...well, you know that their grandfather was—"

"Hey look, it's the guy who's not talking about you when you're not around." Ven said as he walked into the room, giving Tifa a side glance as he walked over to you. "I heard an ow...did you do something?" He asked you with a tired, slightly accusatory eyebrow raise.

"Yeah, but it's okay right?" You asked, looking at Tifa.

"Yeah, it was mostly surprise...I'm fine." Tifa said, still flushing from Ven catching her talking about him. "I'm gonna take this out to the boys." She said quickly walking out of the kitchen with the pizza that had been meant for you. You knew if she took it out there to Zack and Gippal, this would be the last you would see of it.

"You know, we weren't talking about you like that."

"Sure, you were just talking about how dreamy my eyes are." He gave you a sarcastic look before sighing. "You know, all my life I've been left out, lied to, talked about, and used. It's not exactly a new feeling, but I thought you were different. I've been puling your ass out of the fire...lightning...all week, and this is the thanks I get? I thought we had kind of bonded."

"Look, you're right. I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that."

"If you want to know about me, ask  _me_."

"Easier said than done." You mumbled, thinking it was kind of a faux pas to ask someone for their life story—especially one like his—out of the blue like this.

"Then I guess you're gonna have to get to know me the old fashioned way."

"Or I could ask Roxas later." You shrugged with a grin.

"You could try." He returned your smile, "But he doesn't know the full story. Maybe I'll tell you one of these day."

"Oooo so mysterious." You rolled your eyes and got to your feet to go join the others in the living room.

"That's me." He shrugged, following after you.

"Well, I am waiting with bated breath to hear the story."

"Maybe you could tell me your story too." He said casually, slipping his hand in his pockets as he examined a picture of you as a kid from Midgar your mom had brought in the move. "Who's this guy?" He asked, looking at your real brother, Caius.

You looked at the photo for a moment, then had to turn away, "You hold onto your secrets, I'll hold onto mine."

"Fair enough." He scratched his cheek.

"What?" Zack called from the couch, hearing the word 'fair' and assuming someone was calling him.

"Nothing." Ven called back and the two of you made to join the others on the couch.

"Shit talking, as usual I bet." Gippal smirked.

"You got me." You shrugged at him as you took the seat between him and Zack, directly in front of where the pizza was resting on the coffee table. Luckily it was too hot for them to have jumped it...though there was clear evidence they had pulled some pieces away and dropped them immediately as it burned their hands, so you knew it wasn't still there for lack of trying.

"So...what are we watching?" Ven asked, squeezing his way in between you and Gippal.

"You know, there are plenty of other places for you to put your boney butt, Venven." Gippal said bitterly, trying to shove Ven over more towards your side of the couch.

"But I wanted to sit next you." He shot back, putting an arm around him.

"This is why Roxas doesn't like you." Gippal deadpanned.

"If you keep saying these sweet things to me, I'm just gonna have to assume you're flirting with me." Ven smirked at him.

"Aw, you make me think all kinds of naughty things...like where to hide a body."

"Hey Gippal, stop making out with your boyfriend so we can hear the movie." Zack said, grabbing the remote and upping the volume. You snickered at their scowling faces as you brought your knees up into your chest and snuggled deeper into the couch while the opening credits began to paly on whatever movie Zack decided you were watching.

A few minutes later, Yuffie showed up with Reno, Deidara, Demyx, and Vincent. Everyone piled around the TV on the different sections of the large L shaped couch, and Tifa went off to make popcorn for everyone.

Reno and Deidara complained about the movie selection so much that eventually you changed it midway through just to stop their bitching to something they wanted to see. This of course led to Zack and Gippal carrying on and complaining the whole way through it, but eventually you got bored of it all and somehow managed to fall asleep through their yapping.

You didn't wake up until the doorbell rang, and noticed that the movie had changed and Cloud was there. You had also slumped over and fallen onto Ven's arm.

"I got it." Cloud said, getting to his feet and making his way over to the door. You casually began to sit upright with a yawn as you rubbed your eyes, and were thankful everyone seemed more interested in who was at the door than what you were doing. Except for Ven.

"Have a nice nap?" He asked with a smug smile.

"Well, my pillow was a little boney, but—"

"Boney?" He glared at you, "Not you too. If you're gonna start taking after Gippal, we can't hang out anymore."

"Pie!" Gippal cried out, as if on cue. The smell was in the air just a second before Gippal sniffed it out and leapt to his feet. Cloud had just taken the pie from who you assumed was Zack's mother at the door before thanking her and closing it again and walking it over to the couch. Everyone was all over him, of course. It was all he could do to hold it away from them and ask Yuffie to run and get some plates before they started grabbing at it with their hands.

You took this time to check your phone, and saw that Olette had sent you a text saying she was getting ready to leave for the sleepover soon, and wanted to know if you wanted her to stop by your house and get you so she could show you the way to Kairi's house. You quickly texted back that yes, you did, before hopping up to go get ready in your room.

"Hey, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, wait where are you going?" Zack called after you, looking at the clock like he was afraid you were leaving already.

"Leave her alone Zack, she has her own party tonight." Yuffie scolded him, knowing about your sleepover from you talking about it at lunch all week. He pouted, but settled back into his seat all the same as you dashed off to get your bag ready for the night.

You threw on your jammies, packed some clothes for tomorrow morning, and threw your toothbrush and a comb into your bag before heading back downstairs. You were planning on waiting for Olette outside on your porch, but you saw Zack standing up with a slice of pie sitting on a paper plate.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I can't let you leave until you've tried some. It's famous for a reason." He gave you a stern look as he held out the plate for you.

"Well, if you insist." You grinned, taking it from him and stealing the fork out of Gippal's hand before he could get his first bite in. You ignored his complaining completely as you took a bite, your eyes widening in shock. You stared at Zack, dumbfounded, and he smirked.

"See? Almost good enough to make you wanna reconsider your stance on dating me, right?" He continued to gloat as you took a second bite and still had the same amazed expression on your face.

"Almost, yeah." You nodded, feeling like your mouth had just been hugged by an angel.

"Good. Well, if you ever want a piece again, all you have to do is—" The doorbell rang again and you snapped out of your pie daze.

"Oh, that must be Olette! Gotta go! See you later." You said before stuffing your face with another bite and slinging your bag over your shoulder and dashing off again.

"Goddamnit." Zack mumbled bitterly as he watched you go. "Why is it so easy for her to ignore me?"

"Why is it so hard for the rest of us?" Ven snickered from the couch.

"Ventus, I will punch you right in your smug little mouth." Zack said with a brandished fist.

"Ooo scary." Reno shot him a condescending look. "You're such a knuckle-dragger I didn't think you could punch anyone."

"I will hit you too." Zack warned.

"I'll hit all three of you if you don't shut up." Tifa snapped at them, having to turn up the volume on the TV for the hundredth time.

**∞**

You walked out to meet Olette, greeting her through another bite of pie, and the two of you set off on the road to Kairi's house.

"So, how are we going to do this? If we're not careful, Xion is gonna beat us up." Olette kicked a stone as you were walking.

"Well..." You pushed the last bit of pie crust around with your fork, not sure you wanted it to be gone yet, "I was just planning on talking to her, telling her things won't get better unless she tries to make them better. And don't worry about Xion. You hold her down, I'll sit on her, then business as usual."

"Oh ≈≈≈≈≈≈...It's no wonder you get along so well with the boys. You're just like them." She shook her head at you, and you rolled your eyes.

"Today I saw Gippal punch Reno over a pizza crust. I like to think I'm a little bit sophisticated than that."

She laughed, "Maybe, but only a little. Hey, look. Naminé."

You looked up from your now empty pie plate and saw Naminé strolling along on the road about to cross with yours.

"Hey guys." She greeted, adjusting the strap of her tote bag. It was almost overflowing with stuff.

"Did you pack your whole closet, or were you holding back a little?" You asked with a laugh and she gave a sheepish smile.

"I just thought I might need...well, this is my first real sleepover. I didn't know what to expect."

"Oh...I hope we don't disappoint you. We were planning for a pretty simple evening." Olette said. 

"Yeah. Facemask, nails, snacks. The trifecta." You nodded.

Naminé smiled proudly this time, "Well, not to worry then. I brought stuff for all of that. What did you guys bring?"

You and Olette exchanged a glance and you scratched your cheek, "Uhhh...my winning personality?"

Naminé laughed, "Well in that case I'm glad I over packed."

"Hey!" You gawked at her, catching the mischievous glint in her eye.

"Looks like that 'winning personality' is rubbing off on her." Olette commented, and you shot her a playful glare as well.

The three of you went on like this the whole walk to Kairi's, all putting each other in a good mood for the night ahead. This night was supposed to be mainly about cheering Kairi up, so you weren't too worried about Xion getting mad at you for meddling. You weren't meddling. You weren't going to try and force her to do or say anything she didn't want to, you were just trying to help build her self-esteem back up enough that she would want to do it on her own. You told Xion that and she didn't seem total convinced, but couldn't say no to trying to help Kairi feel like herself again.

You walked up to an old, fancy looking Victorian style house on the corner and the girls began to make their way up to the door so you assumed this was it. The door was open and Olette held it open for you all, and you wandered in examining the nice décor and family photos on the wall.

"Hey, who's that?" You asked, seeing a family photo with Kairi and her parents, as well as a boy with flaming red hair and a smirk.

"Oh, that's Lavi. Kairi's twin brother. He used to go to school with us, but he's some kind of genius and was sent through to college at 14." Olette explained, and you raised your eyebrows.

"Wow. Good for him."

"Yeah. It's a little sad though, because we all miss him being around. He only left a few weeks ago for his second year, but you can really feel his absence in the halls. He's really funny. You'd get along." Naminé added.

"We usually see him at their Halloween party though. After their parents' divorce, their dad moved to their vacation house in Halloween Town. They invite pretty much the whole grade, and go all out with decorations and costumes. It's really, really fun." Olette said as she continued to make her way down the hall towards the kitchen, where you heard talking.

"But wait, isn't Halloween during this school trip we taking?" You asked.

"Well yeah, but they still let us go to Halloween Town if we want. Same with Christmas Town in December." Olette shrugged.

"Oh..." You said dumbly, hating not being familiar with all their annual traditions.

'Didn't you do things like that in Midgar?" Naminé asked as you walked into the kitchen and nodded a hello to Xion, Selphie, and Kairi without breaking the conversation.

"No, I mean...we would go skating on the lake when it froze over, but that was about it. And people would throw Halloween parties, but it's not like we actually went anywhere. Hell, I wouldn't even go to the parties if it meant taking more than one train."

"Don't worry, we'll make sure you do the holidays right this year." Olette said with a smirk.

"You guys can't seriously be thinking of the holidays already." Xion gave an exhausted sigh, "I'm still recovering from the Strife barbeque last month."

"The Strife barbeque?" You asked, looking around at them all.

"Just you wait, Mr. Strife goes all out during the summer. Every month he invites the whole neighborhood to the backyard and spends the whole day cooking up all kinds of things on his massive grill."

"So you might even say...he goes  _ham_ on the bbq?" You asked with a dumb, proud grin and everyone around you groaned.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, you know you're not allowed to talk if you're just gonna make puns." Xion glared at you.

"I'm not sorry."

The five of you moved into the living room and threw on a movie while Selphie broke out the nail polish, and you helped Kairi make what you thought was guacamole but turned out to actually be the fresh face mask for the evening. You learned this after nearly having a tantrum about there not being any jalapeno or onions in it, and she had to physically restrain you to keep you from digging in the fridge for more things to add to it.

You were eventually kicked out of the kitchen and Olette was sent in to replace you. You just scowled and sat on the couch while Xion laughed at you and Selphie came over to paint your nails. She was practicing her 'nail art' and trying to give you a different pattern on all ten...but she gave up around your third nail and just stuck with the easy stripe pattern. You were catching up on Xion and Selphie's latest argument about Zexion's appeal while making occasional comments with Naminé about how wrong both of their impressions of him were, since you had him in math class and saw a completely different side of him. The Reno Rage version of him.

"Who's ready for facials!" Kairi sang as she walked into the room with the big bowl of green goop.

"That's guacamole." You narrowed your eyes at it.

"It's an avocado mask, yes. But it's not guac." Olette sighed.

"Get me a chip. I'll prove it."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈! You're not eating our mask supply!"

The doorbell rang, signaling that Yuna and Rikku had arrived and the party was all here.

**∞**

Over the next two hours, a pizza had been delivered—by Hayner, who apparently worked at the local pizza place, and who also seemed just a little too happy to find out there was a girl's party going on—and everyone gathered around the TV with all kinds of snacks to watch some movies while you got goo slapped on your face and painted your toenails.

It was a very relaxing escape from your usual evenings of fighting with Gippal and Axel, yelling at Reno and Zack, and being sassed endlessly by Riku and Roxas. Sure, Yuffie and Tifa were usually around and were your daily safe haven from the boys, but it was still hard to ever unwind and just do girl things when it was just the three of you vs. the hoard of Cloud's friends who were eternally hanging out in your living room. You almost didn't want to bring up the whole 'Kairi-Riku-Sora' issue because it felt nice to forget about the boys for a night...but Selphie and RIkku kept changing the subject back to boys.

They were mostly grilling you about the older junior guys, but occasionally it would dip back into your grade.

"Well, what about Tidus? You guys kinda have a thing going, right?" Rikku asked, nudging Yuna with her elbow.

"We did...but I'm never sure with him." Yuna tucked her hair behind her ear with a depressed look on her face.

"What do you mean?" You asked, getting sucked into their stories about everyone over the years. 

"At the End of Year dance in June, Tidus kissed Yunie. We thought it was going to start this whole big thing between them." Rikku explained, and Yuna sighed.

"But then he went to Blitz camp for a month, and when he got back we never talked about it." She said, sounding rather grumpy about it.

"I always thought there was something going on between the two of you. He's always popping up where ever you go, and always trying to talk to you." You said, and Xion laughed.

"If that's a sign a guy is into you, then I think you might have a problem there ≈≈≈≈≈≈." She said and you shot her a dry look.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh sure you don't." Olette laughed, "You're only followed home by Zack and Gippal every day."

"Zack goes because of Cloud, and Gippal goes because of Zack. Their bromance has nothing to do with me." You finished your statement with a definitive bite of a chip.

"Alright. Well I've been in your room a grand total of three times, and every time Riku has snuck over through the window." Xion shot you a smug look.

"For help with his history homework, yeah. Real steamy." You rolled your eyes.

"I don't know ≈≈≈≈≈≈, back when they were dating, Riku always used to sneak in through Kairi's—" Selphie began, then realized what she was saying and who she was saying it in front of. Kairi's face had gone white and her eyes looked puffy again. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't—"

"No. It's fine. Let's just...not talk about it. I'll get us more drinks." She said, getting to her feet and grabbed all the empty glasses around the table and made for the kitchen. Naminé got up to go after her, and you exchanged a look with Olette. You silently communicated with her that this was probably a good time to make her keep talking about it until she could work through the issues. Olette nodded, and Xion shook her head at you. You gave her a look then glanced over at Kairi in the kitchen, then back to Xion. Xion just shook her head again. You nodded. She gave you a stern look and shook her head again. You rolled your eyes and nodded. She pinched your leg above the knee and you pinched her in the arm.

"Guys stop it. Look, Kairi, we should talk about what happened between the three of you. You can't just keep hiding from it." Olette finally said, and everyone around the room seemed to freeze. Yuna and Rikku stopped their quiet chatter and you and Xion stopped trying to pinch each other, all of you glancing around to see what would happen next.

"I don't want to talk about it." Kairi said quietly, but sternly as she poured refills for everyone.

"You never want to talk about it." Olette shot back, not losing her nerve despite Kairi's tone.

"Yeah? Well that's my decision, isn't it?"

"Calm down, we're just trying to help you get through this." Naminé said, putting a hand on Kairi's shoulder.

"Is that what you guys think? That I need your help? I don't need help I need..." She sighed, "I don't know. A time machine. There's nothing you guys can do. Just drop it already."

"Well I was talking with Sora and—" Olette began, but Kairi dropped the cup she was holding.

"You were talking to him about me?" She looked horrified.

"Only to see if there's a way we can help fix this."

"Would you let it go? It's fucked up, and it's gonna stay that way." She threw down the dish towel she was using to clean up the soda and ran off down the hall. Naminé ran after her, and Selphie and Xion exchanged a glance and you stared at your hands. Silence fell over the group, and as if on cue a sudden sharp pain jabbed at you from inside your chest and shot up through your neck. You lurched forward and clenched your sides, gasping lightly as you tried to fight the feeling.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Xion reached for you, and you realized they were all staring at you. You quickly put a hand over your nose and pretend to sneeze.

"Whew, man. I think I got some pepper up my nose or something..." You lied, sniffling and tucking your hair behind your ears.

"Where did you get pepper?" Selphie shook her head at you.

"From trying to make the guacamole tastier..."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈!" Olette sighed, exasperated at you. You just gave a sheepish smile, happy they seemed to have bought it.

In the distance you could hear the sounds of crying, and Naminé's voice as she tried to be consoling.

"I'll just go...check on them." Selphie said, getting to her feet. All of you watched quietly as she walked off, and the old awkward silence fell over the group again.

"...So...who's ready for bed?" Rikku asked with as good a smile as she could muster.

**∞**

Everyone gathered the cushions on the floor and made a big blanket and pillow pit to sleep on while Naminé, Selphie, and Kairi were out of the room. The three stayed gone for long enough that you all got bored waiting and just decided to actually go to bed. It was around midnight after all, and after your plan for the night fell on its face you figured it was probably best just to let it go and go to bed.

You were all laying down quietly, some of you trying to sleep, others—like yourself—were staring up at the ceiling boredly. The crying in the other room stopped eventually, but Kairi, Naminé, and Selphie didn't rejoin the group so you figured they were just going to bed in there. Or maybe they had managed to get through to her and were talking it out in there. You didn't know. You didn't even know if that was her bedroom or not. You were just lying back, trying to keep your breath normal as you fought the kicking pain which was becoming more frequent.

A particularly bad wave hit, and you curled over onto your side and faked another sneeze sound after accidentally letting a whimper slip.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, go blow your nose." Xion groaned and kicked you lightly in the back. As soon as her foot connected with you, a spark of electricity zapped her. You shot upright, putting your charged hands down on the ground as you did so, and the lights in the house flickered and died as the power went out.

"Shit...are you okay?" You asked her, pulling your hands off the ground and hugging yourself so you were going to touch anything else while you were trying to make sure you got your energy in check.

"Yeah fine. I needed to get that heart rate up anyway." She said, panting slightly like you had scared her more than anything.

"What the heck was that?" Rikku asked, sitting up now too.

"Nothing. I'm just...bad at magic." You sighed, "I've done this to my own house a couple of time over the past week." You admitted. Sometimes with Nethicite being on a necklace and not actually inside you, you would give off random freak charges in the house that always ended up shorting out the lights. "Go back to sleep. I'll go jiggle the fuse box." You got to your feet and grabbed your phone to use it as a light.

You walked out to the garage from the door in the kitchen, and fumbled around in your phone-light for the fuse box in the corner. You tripped over a garden hose and stumbled into a toolbox, but other than making a bit of noise and walking through a spider web, it was no big deal. You got to the fuse box and opened it up to the panel of switches and buttons. You bit your lip as you shinned your phone light over them all. Your house had a neatly labeled each individual switch, but this one just had a mess of knobs and switches.

"Oh great..." You mumbled, taking your phone and scrolling through the contacts. You were going to have to do what you swore you'd never do: call Gippal. You had taken his number (and most everyone else's numbers) from Cloud's phone as soon as your old one—the one that was ruined in the fountain on your first day here—was replaced, just to be sure you had them all in case of an emergency. Like this was. You hit the call button, and sighed as it began ringing. This would mean he'd have your number now, and be able to torment you at all hours of the day and night.

"Yellow?" He answered his phone, sounding like you weren't waking him up or disturbing him at all despite the late hour.

"Gippal?"

"...≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" He suddenly sounded so much more interested in the conversation now

I need your help." You admitted, and you could hear the smugness in his tone as he replied.

"Well, what else is new?"

"Know anything about a..." You paused as you looked around the fuse box once more for a serial number, "C76 ShinRa Corps. fuse box?"

He sighed, "You called me to talk about fuse boxes?"

"Well...yeah." You shrugged.

"Man, Zack wasn't kidding when he said—"

"Hey, c'mon. Can you help or not? I'm sitting in the dark here." You complained, knowing that if you didn't keep him on topic he was bound to turn this into a chatting session.

"Yeah, I guess I know it. Why, what do you need?" He sounded disappointed, but knew you'd hang up on him soon if he didn't actually try to help.

"To reset it, I guess. I shorted out the lights at Kairi's house. I need to get them back on, but nothing is labeled or anything."

"Okay, so do you see the three buttons at the top right? One red, one green, one black?"

You held the light up to the fuse box. "Mmmm....yep, I see them."

"Alrighty, hold down the red button until it clicks."

You pressed it down and waited a few seconds until you heard a distinct clicking noise and felt the button pop.

"Tet ed tu ed? (Did it do it?)"

"Oui." You replied.

"That's 'you.'" He laughed.

"It's 'yes' in French." You shrugged.

"Oh, well good thing we're speaking French." Gippal said sarcastically.

"Oac? (Yes?)"

"There you go." He laughed, "Okay, so now press the black button and hold it down, then press the green one."

"Ugea-tugea. (Okie-dokie)." You nodded, though he couldn't see you, doing as he said. As soon as you pushed down the green button and black one together, the green one light up and you heard the sound of power returning to the house. "Hey, it actually worked." You grinned, closing the fuse box.

"Your faith in me is overwhelming." He scoffed.

"Wait...shhhh." You held your hand over the phone, hearing voices outside. Male voices. As soon as the lights came back on, you could have sworn there was a distinct 'Oh shit!' coming from outside.

"Don't shush me!"

"Shhhhh!" You snapped, turning off the light on your phone and creeping over to the window on the door and taking a look at what was going on outside. You saw Riku and Axel helping Pence hop the fence to Kairi's backyard. "Oh no..." You rolled your eyes.

"What? What's going on?" Gippal demanded over the phone that you barely had near your face at this point.

"Nothing. I'll talk to you later."

"Wait! ≈≈≈≈≈...this is your phone number, right?" He had a tone you didn't like. Like he knew he was going to be able to torment you in the future.

"Bye Gippal." You hung up the phone and quickly shot a text to Xion, hoping that she wasn't sleeping yet. After that you made your way to the door near the garage and walked outside to the back fence and hopped it, just in time to see the boys huddled up discussing the next phase of their plan. You kept hidden as they broke up and Sora began to climb the banister of the back porch and then made for the roof where you could see the window to what you guessed was Kairi's room was dark and quiet. After Sora got up there and got the window open and disappeared inside, then the rest of the boys followed one at a time. You waited until it was just Riku and Roxas left, and only made you way over to Riku as Roxas began his climb. You walked up beside Riku and cleared your throat.

"Whoa! Jesus, ≈≈≈≈≈≈!" He put a hand over his heart and hit you lightly on the arm for sneaking up on him.

"What do you think you're doing?" You crossed your arms at him.

"We're just...having a little...I don't know, revenge fest." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"Revenge fest?" You raised a brow at him. "That doesn't sound like you."

He sighed, "It's not. It was Hayner and Sora's idea."

"Since when do you go along with Hayner and Sora's ideas?" You scolded him.

"I don't know. Since I'm mad as hell and wanted to give her a little taste of payback."

"By what? Stealing her socks?" You scoffed.

"Well, we were gonna take her bras...but..."

"Riku! No." You swatted him on the back of the head. "Bras are expensive as shit!"

"We were only gonna take like five. I'll leave a $20 on the nightstand."

"You think $20 is enough for five bras?" You deadpanned at him. "Boys are idiots."

"Okay, fine. We'll take her underwear."

You hit him again, harder this time. "One, underwear isn't that much cheaper, and two, you can't just go digging around in a girl's underwear drawer!"

He scoffed at you this time, "Why not? She's allowed to do whatever she wants to me, but I can't even do a little stupid thing in the name of revenge?"

"Well you're walking a fine line between being vengeful and being creepy, so there's that." You crossed your arms and glared at him. "Remind me to put locks on my underwear drawer when I get home."

"Oh stop. It's not like that. It's just a bit of harmless—"

"Harmless revenge?" You shot him a look, "You know that's probably some kind of oxymoron, right? You're trying to hurt her, even if it is just a little bit. There's nothing harmless about that."

"You know what? You're right. It's not harmless. I do want to hurt her. But she hurt me first, and she hurt me way worse than anything I could ever do to her. So don't try and stop me."

You held your hands up as if to 'I give up.' "I won't. You're better than this...but I won't stop you. I'm hoping you'll stop yourself. But I'm not the one who will have to live with this."

"I'm stealing her bra, not killing her. You can stop with the guilt tripping." He shot you a sideways glace.

"Fine, but just so you know I forgive you."

"Shut up."

"I forgive you for that too."

He rolled his eyes at you and made to begin climbing the porch like all the other boys had done just moments ago. "You're a real saint, you know that?" He said as he went.

"Forgiveness is a drug. You should try it sometime."

"Are you actively telling me to try drugs?"

"Well, it's a step up from panty snatching."

He slipped on a roof tile and shot you a look over his shoulder, "Hey, hey, hey. Watch it."

"Watch yourself." You shot back, then decided to make your way to the garage again to let yourself back in the house since he was almost at the window. You only hoped Xion got your text in time.

The house was still dark and quiet when you walked in so it was hard to tell what was going on, but when you walked back to the living room and saw everyone was gone you knew Xion had gotten the message. With a grin on your face you walked upstairs and hoped for the best.

You heard giggling coming from Kairi's room, and felt your smile widen. You pushed open the door and threw on the light, only to burst out laughing. The girls had gotten your message that the boys were trying to sneak in, and they had been waiting under the window and snatching the boys one by one as they came in, tying them up with things from Kairi's closet. Sora was wrapped and tied in a sweater, Pence, Wakka, and Tidus were bound together by her bed sheets, Hayner was wrapped up in various pairs of sweatpants and leggings, Roxas and Axel had dresses pulled over them with other ones wrapped around to keep their arms stuck, and Riku had been belts around his wrists, and had a few around his arms to keep them bound by his side.

"Well isn't this a surprise." You smirked seeing that Xion was sitting on Roxas with her feet on Axel, Olette held Hayner down, Rikku had her foot on Sora, and Yuna was holding Tidus by the shoulders. Riku was under the window like they had just nabbed him as soon as he got in, looking utterly defeated.

"Don't even start, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." Roxas sighed, seeing your expression of pure joy.

"Somebody gag him." Xion said, digging her elbow into his back and making him squirm. Rikku grabbed a sock from Kairi's drawer and made to put it in Roxas' mouth.

"Oh come on, you've already got us. There's no need for that!" Sora began, but then Rikku brought the other sock over to him and stuck it in his mouth. Complaints broke out from all of them, until eventually Selphie entered the room.

"Guys? What's going—oh. Ohhhhhh this is good." Her eyes lit up. "Oh this is  _so_  good. Kairi! Naminé! Get up here."

"Great..." Riku mumbled through the sock, and Sora began hitting his head on the ground.

Kairi and Naminé came rushing up the stairs and into the room, and while Naminé had trouble keeping from giggling at the sight of all the boys, Kairi looked slightly mortified.

"What did you guys do?" She asked, looking around at all the boys.

"They were breaking in!" Rikku quickly explained.

"They were trying to play some kind of prank, the rotten bastards." Xion gave Roxas another good nudge with her elbow and he groaned loudly and glared at her. You had been laughing at them quietly until you saw Kairi looked like she might well up with tears again.

"Get them out of here." She said, her voice shaking.

You looked at Riku and saw he had made awkward eye contact with Kairi then looked at the floor with a bitter expression, and Kairi turned to leave the room. You grabbed her arm and stopped her, "Come on, Kairi, it's just a bit of fun."

"Just let them go, make them leave. I don't want them anywhere near here."

"Would you please just talk to them? You can't keep this up forever." You tried, but she pulled free from your grip. Sora began making a fuss from under Rikku until he broke free and made to go after her. You stopped him as he passed you to take the sock out of his mouth.

"Thanks, ≈≈≈." He shortened your name in a nicknamey kind of way as he pushed passed you, "Kairi, wait! Please!" He ran after her. Everyone in the room—the boys included—turned to Riku, who sat on the ground looking the other way, pretending like he didn't see any of you waiting for him to do the same.

"Riku?" Finally, Olette couldn't take it anymore.

He grunted a response through the sock in his mouth, and you rolled your eyes and took it out of his mouth. "What do you guys want from me?" He huffed when he could talk again. Everyone exchanged a glance before looking back at him. "What?" He snapped.

"Are you gonna go after them, or what?" Rikku asked.

"Or what." He looked away from everyone again.

"Don't you think you're being a bit of an ass?" Xion shot, and he shook his head and laughed bitterly.

"I knew I shouldn't have come along with this stupid plan."

Hayner made some kind of fussing noise, but everyone ignored him.

"How's revenge working out for ya?" You asked him and he shot you a murderous look.

"Don't you dare."

"Well, I for one—"

"Don't."

"Would just like to let you know that I—"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, don't you fucking dare!"

"Forgive you."

He clenched his jaw and you thought you actually heard him growl a little under his breath as he glared at you. If he wasn't tied up, you might have worried that he'd try and tackle you. It was kind of funny, but also kind of sad, because it meant that he was this hurt over what had happened still.

You sighed and grabbed him by the belt that was keeping his arms by his side and pulled him to his feet and dragged him out of the room and down the hall, the opposite way Sora and Kairi had gone.

"Come on, ≈≈≈≈≈≈, what are we doing?" He asked tiredly as you pulled him down the hall far enough away that the others wouldn't be able to hear your conversation.

"We're talking this thing out." You said and he stopped dead, not allowing you to pull him any farther.

"I don't want to talk this out. At all. Ever."

"Sure you do. Okay, so pretend I'm Kairi. 'Riku, I'm sorry for what I did. Can you ever forgive me?'" You gave him a small smile as you waited for his reply.

"Good. You should be sorry. You're a cold-faced lying, cheating, bitch and you broke my fucking heart. Rot in hell."

"Okay. So let's try again, and maybe this time be a little less soul crushing." You said, not losing the pleasant look on your face despite the venom he just tried to spit at you. You reached out and began to undo the belt around his hands, and once he was free he began to take the others off too.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I don't want to talk. In fact, the more I talk, the more I want to hit something, so maybe we—"

"You clearly do want to talk, even if you're not willing to admit it. Why else would you be here?" You gave him knowing look.

"Because Sora and Hayner—"

"Bullshit. You don't go along with anything unless you want to, you're not that kind of guy. So why are you really here?"

"I don't know. Maybe I did just want to hurt her. Maybe it's that simple."

"I don't think it is."

"Well what do you know?" He snapped, and you gave him a very hard look. He buckled under your gaze, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that. I'm just...trying to create some distance between myself and her by burning any bridge I can find."

"She's a big part of your life and your friends' lives. You go burning bridges that close to home it's just gonna eat everything up. You're going to make a rift between everyone. People are going to have to pick sides, and I know you're not happy now, but you're going to be even more hurt then."

"Why, you think they'll take her side?"

"That's so not the point." You sighed.

"I don't know what you want from me, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. I'm not going to forgive her. I can't. Believe me, I've tried and I can't."

"I just want you to talk to her."

"I don't think I can do that, either."

"Sora can." You shrugged.

"Yeah, well, maybe he just has a bigger heart than I do." He looked away from you as he leaned against the wall casually.

"If that were true, then why does what she did still bother you so much, even after all these months? He might be quicker to forgive but your heart's just as big, and even more hurt. That's why you're here tonight. Deep down, you know you want to resolve this. I'm not telling you to make friends with her again. I just want you to stop torturing yourself over this. Forgive her and move on."

"What do you want me to say to her? I can't forgive her. I can't accept her apology. There's no point."

"Just tell her that. Tell her you know that she is sorry, you know that she knows what she did was wrong, and you know she didn't mean to hurt you, but she did, and you're not ready to get over that. You acknowledge her apology, but you're not ready to forgive her."

"What good will that do?" He looked at his feet.

"Maybe it wont do anything. Or maybe she'll be able to walk around the halls at school without having to duck and hide any time she sees you. I know you don't forgive her, but I also know you don't actively wish anymore pain on her, right?"

He shuffled his feet, "I guess I don't."

"Good. Then you have to start taking steps towards repairing your relationship with her. You don't have to be friends with her again, and you certainly don't have to love her again, but you're gonna have to find it within yourself to forgive her eventually. The longer you hold onto your hate for someone, the heavier it gets, until it weighs you down and turns toxic inside you. Just...promise me you will try." You touched his arm to make him look up from his feet at you, and he nodded.

"I'll try." He finally said, and you gave him a tight hug which he slowly returned.

"I know it's hard. Thank you for trying. I'm really proud of you." You said as you squeezed him.

"Yeah..." He sighed, "Any idea how long will it take before this stops hurting?"

"Maybe forever, but it will get better." You pulled back enough that you could look at him.

"That's not actually all that reassuring."

"I know. But you'll get through it anyway." You tried to give him a kiss on the cheek, but ended up shocking him lightly as your lips came in contact with his skin.

"Ow," He mumbled, rubbing his cheek and glaring at you with a playful look, "Did you do that on purpose?"

"Come on, what are you standing around for? Go after her already." You gave him a reassuring smile and a kick to the butt to get him moving.

He took a few steps and then turned back, "Hey, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ I...thanks."

"Thank me when it's over. Now get." You said, and he sighed heavily as he made his way down the hall and stairs to go find Sora and Kairi. Meanwhile, you returned to the room just in time to see Roxas dropped to one knee in front of Olette, serenading her to what you knew was her favorite song.

You stood in the doorway watching half confused and half completely impressed. He had a surprisingly good singing voice. He finished his song, and you were left looking around for an explanation as to what was going on, and Selphie caught sight of you and mouthed, "Truth or dare."

You took another look around and saw that everyone was sitting in a wonky circle around the room, and noticed that Yuna, Hayner, Pence, Tidus, and Wakka were distinctly absent. Roxas had finished his song and sat back down, and you made you way over to him and sat next to him and Axel.

"Damn Roxy, that was really good." You said as you sat.

"Oh shut up." He blushed and looked away.

"No, really!"

"I've been telling him that for years." Axel said proudly, even though the two had only really become friends recently in magic class.

"Go home." Roxas glared at him.

"Yeah, why are you here?" You asked, thinking it was strange he was hanging out with your age group, not his own on a Friday night. Especially since you knew his brother was over at your house for movie night.

"Well I was hanging out with Roxas when these idiots came over with a plan to crash your slumber party. What kind of a humble gentleman would I be if I refused to join?

"Uh huh...so you were hoping for topless pillow fights and—"

"Hey guys, isn't it technically ≈≈≈≈≈'s turn?" Axel quickly interrupted you.

"Hey, I guess it is. Way to take the hotseat, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." Xion said with a devilish grin, and you suddenly realized that sitting next to Roxas—who had obviously just been dared—was probably a dumb move.

"Oh no..."

"Oh yes." Selphie nodded.

"So then ≈≈≈≈≈...truth or dare?" Rikku grinned.

"Dare." You tried to sound confident.

Rikku and Selphie exchanged a glance and a smirk, then they began conspiring quietly. Then suddenly Naminé's face lit up. "Oh! I have one!" She whispered her idea to them, and they began giggling. You hated the looks of that.

"Okay! We dare you to ask Genesis out." Selphie finally said, and you felt like someone had kicked you in the gut.

"Ha, good thing they didn't say Zack, am I right?" Axel elbowed you lightly and laughed, and you jabbed your elbow into him right back.

"Shut up." You grumbled as you whipped out your phone and starting a text.

"Noooo you have to call him." Rikku fussed.

"It's like 1:00 a.m. I'm not calling him." You rolled your eyes, trying to keep your outward appearance looking calm and casual as your heart kicked up and you felt like jelly inside.

"Oh fine. Send your text. Chicken." Selphie shook her head at you.

Xion moved from her spot in the circle to standing behind you so she could see what you were writing. 'Hey Genny! It's ≈≈≈≈≈≈. I got your number off Cloud, I hope you don't mind! I was wondering if you'd like to meet me for coffee sometime. Maybe we could study for the math quiz on Thursday, or you could recommend some new books for me? Just let me know if you're interested in doing something!'

"Smooth as butter." Xion commented after you showed it to her for approval. You couldn't quiet tell if she was being sarcastic, but you hit send all the same. You couldn't decide if you would rather him reply right away with an answer or if you hoped he was asleep and you wouldn't have to worry about it yet.

"Dare done." You shrugged, pocketing your phone.

"Dare not done, if he accepts you actually have to go on this date." Olette added.

You sighed, and Axel piped up, "This dare sucks. Either he says no or she get a free drink out of it. Either way, she wins."

"How is him saying no me winning?" You scoffed.

"Because, it means you don't have to spend the evening with Loveless."

"Hey, he's very nice."

"Sounds to me like you want to go out with him."

"Better him than you." You shot back and he gave a mock offended gasp.

"Can somebody dare them to shut up?" Xion grumbled, sitting beside you.

"Xion, guess who's in the hotseat now?" You smirked at her, and she realized she just made the same mistake you did.

"Aw shit."

"Truth or dare?" Rikku asked.

"Dare."

"I dare you to let me date your brother." Selphie threw in quickly, and Xion threw a pillow at her. Just then Tidus and Wakka came strutting into the room dressed in Kairi's clothes and wearing her makeup. Yuna walked in after them with a makeup bag in her hand and a smile on her face. Tidus struck a pose and everyone laughed, while Wakka hung his head in shame and rubbed his lips together, not liking the feel of the lip gloss on them.

"All done." Yuna announced happily, putting Kairi's makeup bag down on the white wood vanity in the room. You figured you missed some dare, but the details didn't really matter; you got the picture well enough. The boys struggled to sit down in their dresses without flashing their boxers, causing everyone to laugh again.

"Yeah, yeah...laugh it up." Wakka mumbled bitterly.

"Who's turn is it anyway?" Tidus asked looking around the circle.

"Mine, and I change my answer to truth." She shot Selphie a glare, not trusting Selphie to have any power over her.

"Fine. Be that way." Selphie crossed her arms.

And so the game went on. Hayner and Pence came running into the room, panting, with a lawn flamingo each in their arms. Apparently Roxas had dared them to steal something from old man Merlin's lawn, then when you asked him who that was he promised to take you by there sometime so you could see for yourself. You dared Axel to go eat the entire bowl of 'guacamole' that was down in the kitchen, which he did in record time. Then Axel dared Selphie to prank call Reno and flirt with him, then Olette had to tell the story of the time she peed herself at the school fair in third grade. Then finally, in what you guessed was her attempt to play matchmaker, Rikku dared Yuna to kiss Tidus. But before she could, Axel put down the bowl of guac and got a devilish grin.

"What if we played Seven Minutes in Heaven?" He proposed, and Selphie gave an excited gasp and clapped her hands, while you and Xion groaned.

"What if we didn't?" Roxas rolled his eyes.

"Aw come on, kids. Where's your sense of adventure?" Axel said as he pulled out a deck of cards from the pile of games someone had brought up from the living room. He began picking out all the face cards and some aces, his smirk getting wider all the while.

"Who invited him, again?" Xion asked, and Roxas sighed.

"Won't happen again." He apologized.

"Shut up. Take a card." Axel said, taking the pile of black face cards and making Roxas pick one before taking one himself, then passing them over to Pence, Hayner, Tidus, and Wakka. Once all the boys had a black card, Axel handed out the red cards to the girls. You pulled the Jack of Hearts. "Everyone knows their card?" He asked the group. Everyone nodded, and he had you hand them back. "Good. Then let the games begin." He shuffled the boys deck then the girls, then flipped over the top cards on each.

"King of Clubs..." Axel flipped over the card from the boy's stack, being slow and deliberate on purpose. Pence stiffened and held his breath as he waited for Axel to flip the girl's pile. "And Queen of Diamonds." Naminé went full on red in the face and stared at the card in utter disbelief. 

"Alright Nam! First pick." Selphie giggled as she got to her feet and pulled Naminé up to hers as well. She led her over to Kairi's big walk-in closet and opened the door, and Hayner pushed Pence up and made him follow. Selphie grabbed her iPod and plugged it into Kairi's speakers with a grin, and hit shuffle, "You have until the song ends." She said, shutting the closet door on them.

Luckily, the song Selphie chose was closer to 3 minutes than 7, so you didn't have to wait too long before Axel was on his feet and had your phone ready as he threw open the door. You didn't know why he grabbed your phone when his was right in his back pocket, but it was probably just because it was right there in front of you on the ground and he was in a hurry. Selphie and Olette let out delighted giggles as Axel opened the closet door and snapped a picture just in time to catch Naminé and Pence in a lip lock. Meanwhile Rikku whispered something Tidus, then reached for the pile of cards and rearranged them slightly so different cards were on top. You wondered what she was up to as everyone rejoined the circle, but it all became clear as Axel flipped the next two cards over.

"Queen of Spades," Axel said as he flipped the top card from the boy's deck. Tidus and Rikku exchanged a happy glance and she gave him a thumbs up, "And King of Diamonds." Yuna blushed and hit Rikku shyly as Olette began to haul her off to the closet now too. It was a fun game, you thought, as long as you weren't the one who needed to be playing. It went on like that, Selphie was paired with Wakka next, then Hayner and Olette after. No one else fell for Axel's photo trick, so he eventually gave up and gave you your phone back. While they began with the next round, you looked at the photo he got of Naminé and Pence. It was actually pretty cute. You looked up, thinking you might show her, when you caught her and Pence exchanging a glance and a giggle, like they were flirting. You tried to hide the smile on your face as you began to wonder if maybe their time in the closet sparked something.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, focus." Xion hit you on the shoulder, drawing you out of your thoughts.

"What?" You asked, looking around dumbly.

"Jack of Hearts? It's none of us, so it's gotta be you." She shrugged, and you looked down at the flipped cards. The King of Spades and the Jack of Hearts were flipped over.

"Oh. So it is. Sorry, I was—"

"Spacing out? We noticed. You tend to do that." Olette gave you a dry look, probably thinking you were just stalling to get out of your turn.

"Alright, in the closet you go." Selphie came to get you and pull you to your feet.

"But wait, who am I going with?" You looked around again and saw Roxas slowly getting to his feet, his cheeks a fair shade pinker than normal. You felt your own face heat up as you made eye contact with him, and you could only hope that it wasn't visible on your face though you were sure it was. Selphie gave you a good push into the closet, then ushered Roxas in after you before shutting the door and looking for her iPod again.

Rikku saw Axel glaring at the cards and snickered at him as everyone else began conversing again, "Funny how everyone seemed to match up with exactly who they wanted to. It looks like you were playing matchmaker."

"If that were true, then why would I let ≈≈≈≈≈ go off with Xion's match?"

She raised an eyebrow, "I think you mean why did you let Roxas go off with  _your_  match."

"I don't know what you mean." He shot back, checking his nails casually so he could avoid her gaze.

"I switched the cards when making sure Yunie got her match." Rikku smirked. "I like to play matchmaker too."

"Cheating scum." Axel glared at her.

"Is cheating a cheater really cheating?" She flicked her ponytail off her shoulder smugly.

The song finally started playing, signaling that your time in the closet had officially begun. You felt around the wall for a light switch, but you guessed that the switch must have been on the outside.

"Look, you don't have to kiss me if you don't want to. It's just some stupid game after all." Roxas said, and you could hear the embarrassment in his voice. You had never heard his tone so tense.

"No it's not, and yes you do." Selphie called out from behind the door, and you figured she had her ear pressed to the other side of the wooden door. You hit the wood and heard her yelp and scurry away.

"It's alright. It's just a game, and they'd give me hell if I wasn't a good sport. I didn't come here to kiss ya, Roxy. I came here to win." You said confidently, thinking that if you turned it into another game you were trying to win against Selphie it wouldn't be so awkward.

"Yeah, but you can't really win this game, you know? It's just something stupid kids play when they want an excuse to—" His words froze in his throat as you felt around in the dark for him, and your hand finally found his shoulder. He tensed up, "Please don't do this just because you're in your competitive rage mode."

You stopped, "I do not have a competitive rage mode."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, you live in competitive rage mode."

"Well...people keep challenging me to do things." You shot back.

"This isn't a challenge, it's a kiss." He shrugged, which you could feel because your hand was still on his shoulder. It was so dark you couldn't see him, so you left your hand there to get a sense of where he was and what he was doing.

"Speak for yourself. I've never...really kissed anyone before...so I wouldn't know." You admitted sheepishly, thankful now for the darkness keeping your face hidden from him as your checks flared again.

"You...you haven't?" He asked, making your face even redder.

"Don't rub it in." You shoved him lightly as he began to laugh.

"No that's not—I don't know, I just thought...well I mean you're smart, funny, and everyone who meets you loves you. It's just funny to me that you've never dated anyone. I mean, your best friends look like Abercrombie models, and—"

"Wait, what?" You stopped him with a laugh, both because this was turning into a classic 'Roxas can't shut up when he's scared' moment, and because he was losing you.

"Zack and Gippal? It's one thing to just be massively tall, or ripped, or be good looking, but when it's all three in one guy, and then you get the two of 'em together all the time, I mean just thinking of the flood of fangirls alone makes your head hurt. They normally stay in their lane, or even just go after senior girls, but then you came along, and we were worried you'd just be more fodder for the fangirl machine, like Selphie, but then you we're interested in that, and they decided you were worth chasing, but by then you were already my friend, my ≈≈—"

"Roxy, would you shut up?" You moved your hand from his shoulder to his mouth, and could feel that his cheeks were blazing. You had a hard time keeping from laughing at him, "You're gonna blow a gasket."

He let out a heavy breath through his nose as he tried to calm himself and he took your hand by the wrist and moved it away from his mouth, "Sorry. It's just...well, you know."

"No, I really don't." You laughed, "Besides. Zack isn't my best friend, and Gippal certainly isn't. You are." His grip around your wrist tightened unconsciously.

"I am?"

"Well, yeah." You shrugged, "I mean, you're always the first person I turn to when I need help, I could talk to you for hours—and have, many times. I have more in common with you than anyone else, here or in Midgar, and I really noticed how much time we normally spend together, and how much I like our time together, on the day you missed school this week. I hate to break it to you, but yeah, I do think of you as my best friend."

He gave a small laugh, "I guess that's all true, I just didn't think—"

"Hey, you never do." You shot smartly and he scoffed.

"So are we gonna do this thing, or not?" He retorted, and suddenly you clammed up again as he put his hands on your shoulders.

"What do you mean?" Your eyes widened as he reached one hand up so it was cupping your cheek. You began to back away, until your back hit the clothes hanging in the closet.

"Oh, not so tough now, are you?" He joked, letting go of you.

"Asshole." You swatted blindly for him in the darkness, but missed. Apparently he had stepped away. You heard him laughing to your right.

"I'm sorry. You deserved a scare...but still. I won't steal your first kiss over a stupid game." He said, and you followed his voice with a hand out until your fingers made contact with the fabric of his sweater. "Hey, what are you..." You pulled him down a few inches by the front of his sweater, and then you found his face by fumbling your hands up his neck, hitting him in the jaw and then the forehead as you over-corrected while trying to find his cheeks. "≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, come on. What are you up to?" He asked, putting a hand over yours and bringing it down from his forehead to his cheek.

"Better you than some Abercrombie model with a hoard of fangirls at his heels, right? At least you won't make fun of me."

"But you—"

You didn't let him finish, instead pulled him closer until your lips found his skin. You were a little too far to the left, but as soon as he got the hint that you were trying to kiss him, he raised a hand to your face and tilted your chin in the right direction so your lips could properly connect. His lips were softer than you had expected, and tasted slightly sweet, like the ice cream bars you all had been snacking on since the boys' arrival. He was also much warmer than you would have expected. He was an ice mage, though he was about as new to magic as you were. It made his hands burn cold against the skin of your face, but the heat from the blush that was plastered to his cheeks was all you could feel from his lips. That, or it was your own strange, buzzing electrical energy passing to him, because suddenly you felt all the hairs on your arms and the back of your neck stand on end as tingling spark waves began to radiate from you.

It was a nice kiss, you thought. He was very gentle, and was being very patient with your awkward fumbling with your hands, trying to get them back to his shoulders since he was clearly better at the face cupping business than you were. You had just started getting used to the feeling of his soft lips moving against yours when you suddenly couldn't help but feeling your magic building up again, and the tingling waves began to intensify, bringing you back to reality.

They weren't painful or sharp, it was more like a tickle honestly, but it was still strong enough that you were sure he would notice. In fact, when you moved your hand a little on his shoulder the room flashed with light for a moment as you shocked him. This caused you to jump with sudden fear and lose even more control over what your energy was up to. You shocked him again as you began to pull away, this time your lips were the only thing connected so they were what got the bolt.

"Ow!" You jerked away from him, holding a hand up to your now stinging lips. "Sorry..." You hung your head lightly, still touching your lips. They felt strangely numb now, and even more tingly than before. You couldn't help but feel like kicking yourself for ruining your first kiss.

"No, it's fine. You're just...keeping things interesting, like always." He said, sounding a little disappointed maybe, but not hurt. "Besides, the song is ending soon.

Just as you were about to reply, the familiar pain in your chest kicked up again, sending you into a spasm of pain. You doubled over and muffled a cry of pain in your hands.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈?" He called out, hearing a faint whimper from you over the fading music. You just went with your default response and pretended to sneeze, and he laughed.

"Shut up. I got pepper in my nose earlier." You said quickly, trying to keep your tone casual despite still being bent over in mild agony over the pounding pain. It was like you were being stabbed through the heart and lungs from the inside. It was definitely getting worse. Just like Lulu had said.

"Of course you did. What was that thing you said about not being able to make fun of you, because I don't know if I'm going to be able to stick to that."

"I will light this whole place up in flames if you say a single word. You can tell this story in hell."

He just laughed, "Remember that talk we had about competitive rage mode?"

"...no..." You mumbled bitterly as you straightened up to full height despite the lingering pain, hearing the final cords of the song playing. Selphie would be at the door at any minute to throw it open. You straightened up your hair and gave your sore lips a last rub before positioning yourself. The song ended, and you heard a hand on the doorknob. They were probably hoping to catch you in the middle of an impassioned lip lock, and try to take a picture. Well, they had another thing coming. Roxas stood beside you, having a similar mind.

The door swung open and you both held up your hands to give them the finger as a bright camera flash went off.

"Awwww." Selphie's disappointment was palpable as she looked at the photo.

"Did you even kiss her?" Rikku asked shooting Roxas a sharp look.

"I heard ≈≈≈≈≈≈ sneeze again, so they probably didn't." Xion mumbled.

"Whatever." You growled at her as you took a seat in the circle by Yuna. Your arm grazed hers as you sat, and she quickly shot up as though you had scared her.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈..." She said quietly with a concerned look on her face. "Are you alright?" She spoke so the others couldn't hear her as they carried on with their own conversations.

"Just fine, why?" You lied. She saw that you were leaning on your hand and as everyone else began to return to the circle, she sat so she was leaning on her hand as well, her finger slightly touching your hand in a discreet way. You didn't know what she was up to until suddenly you began to feel healing magic passing through her hand to you.

"So this is why you need Ven around in training all the time...You should have told me." She said in the same quiet tone so your conversation would continue to go unnoticed. Axel and Selphie were so loud in their squabble over nothing that most everyone was looking at them, or was going over to Pence and Hayner who had just gone on a snack run. Roxas was still looking at you as he took a seat by Pence, but you knew he wasn't going to say anything, even if he did see. He was probably already suspicious anyway. You did just shock him repeatedly, and sneeze suspiciously after all.

The games kept going, but you had honestly stopped paying attention to everything that was going on with everyone else, and just enjoyed feeling normal and good again. Eventually you slumped over so your head was in her lap, and she was playing with your hair while dosing you with healing magic. Other people had started to get sleepy and were laying down, so what you were doing didn't really seem of any interest to them.

Finally, Riku, Sora, and Kairi all entered the room, looking all talked out and as tired as the rest of you. It was nearing 4 in the morning, so Kairi officially called it bed time. She and Selphie and Naminé all squeezed into her bed together to sleep, while the rest of you got snuggled up in blankets and pillows on the floor. Somehow you ended up between Roxas and Axel, and it was like sleeping next to an ice box and an oven. If you got too hot you just rolled over to Roxas, and when you got to cold you just wiggled a little closer to Axel. All in all, it was a pretty pleasant night, even if you didn't sleep much. You still had random fits of pain, and didn't want to wake Yuna to have her help you, so you just spent a good chunk of the night staring at the ceiling. Axel, Wakka, and Pence snored, and Rikku talked quietly in her sleep. You entertained yourself by listening to them until sleep finally found you as the sun began to come up.

**∞**

The next morning at around 8:00 am, you woke up again and found yourself cuddled up against Axel. He was so toasty warm, you must have just gravitated over to him while asleep. You tried to quietly roll away without waking him, but your knee popped and Roxas began to stir. He accidentally hit Xion in the face with his hand as he repositioned, and she woke with a start. Her gasp woke up Yuna and Rikku, and Rikku's growl of disapproval woke up Tidus, who threw a pillow at her and missed, hitting Pence.

Needless to say, within a couple of minutes everyone was up and grumpy from lack of sleep. Some rolled over and tried to go back to bed, but you were in desperate need of seeing Ven again for a healing session. Riku said he was just going to go home and sleep there, and you decided to follow him out. Knowing Ven, he wouldn't be up at this hour...but at least you could be in pain in peace in your own bed, and not need to fake a sneeze to hide it.

The walk back home with Riku was a fairly quiet one. You were both dead tired, and you got the feeling that if he wanted to talk about what happened with him and Sora and Kairi last night he would, and there was no point in trying to pressure him into doing so before he was ready. Besides, you hated to admit it, but at this early hour and with the way you were feeling, you kind of didn't care about any one else's problems but your own. You talked a little about what you had done while they were talking, but when you had finished and a comfortable sleepy silence fell between you, neither of you made any effort to try and start a conversation.

You were at your driveway in around ten minutes, but before you could leave the main road for it he stopped.

"Hey...so um...I'll tell you all about what happened later." He said casually as a means of saying a goodbye, "But, I just wanted to say thank you again. Because of you, we may get through this without any bloodshed. We're not going to be making each other friendship bracelets anytime soon, but...you know." He shrugged.

"Good to hear. I'm looking forward to hearing the details...you know, when I'm not quite so dead inside." You joked as you stifled a yawn.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I'll see you later." He said, and you nodded lazily and hummed a reply that vaguely sounded like 'okay' before making your way down your driveway and into the house. It was early enough that your parents and Cloud were asleep still, so you snuck up to your room without having to worry about any of them yet. You pushed open the door to your room with another yawn, then stopped dead as you saw someone was sleeping in your bed. 


	8. Chapter 8

You had just walked in the door to your room to find that there was someone asleep in your bed. You put your things from the night before on the desk and strode over to your bed curiously. Whoever it was they had the covers pulled up over their head and they were sprawled out, making a twisted mess of your blankets.

At first you were worried about who you would find, then your early morning irritation got the better of you and you just felt angry that there was something else keeping you from getting to bed now. "Hey." You called out, and got only a snore in response. You rolled your eyes, thinking it was totally just going to be one of your idiot friends under there. You grabbed the blanket and pulled it back roughly, exposing whoever as beneath it to the cold morning air, earning a groan of displeasure.

"Ven?" You were surprised to find that it was him, not Zack, Gippal, Reno, or any of your other usual suspects when something weird happened to you.

"What?" He snapped, rubbing tired eyes and reaching for the blankets again.

"Why are you in my house? Why are you in my bed?" You shot, throwing the blanket back over him.

He pulled the blanket around his head like a hood and looked around the room, "Oh yeah...I did go to sleep here, didn't I?"

"I don't know!" You realized he was probably speaking more to himself, but you were so confused to find him in your bed that you didn't care.

"Lulu asked me to watch you last night, but then you ran off. I figured if anything happened you'd come here, so I snuck into your room and...then I fell asleep. Sorry."

"No you're not." 

"No, I'm not." He shrugged.

"Well, are you going to leave?"

 "Depends, how are you doing?"

You crossed your arms and sighed, "Hanging in there, could be better. Are you going to tell me what's going on yet?"

"Later. You look like you need sleep more than answers right now." He said, holding out a hand for you to take so he could do a med-check on you.

"You should see yourself." You shot back, seeing that he was still trying to blink the sleep out of his eyes as he looked at you.

"Just gimme your damn hand." He glared at you. You tried to take your time so as not to look desperate to have him heal you despite yourself. You wanted his help not his attitude, after all. He touched your fingers and instantly shot you a look, "Do you not feel pain like the rest of us? How are you vertical right now?"

"Oh, believe me. I feel it." You said, taking a seat on the bed beside him. It was almost hard to describe how you felt inside. Electric currents were reverberating through you with every heartbeat, every so often—and with increasing frequency—turning sharp and more painful than you could try to cover up anymore.

"Why didn't you come home?" He asked, looking at you like you were an idiot.

"I just had to get through one night." You shrugged, leaning over so you could rest against his shoulder as he continued his med-check.

"You know, getting through the night really isn't the point of nighttime. Did you even sleep at all?"

"Not really." You admitted, closing your eyes. He must have started the healing process, because you suddenly felt the lightning storm die to a dull buzz and the pain stopped.

"Well congratulations, you tortured yourself all night for nothing." He sighed, giving your hand a squeeze before letting it rest between his warm hands on his knee. "Wish I had that kind of grit." He mumbled.

"I didn't know it was gonna get this bad. You didn't tell me anything. You still won't tell me anything." You complained, keeping your eye on your connected hands. On the surface it didn't look like he was doing anything at all other than holding your hand, but you could feel the healing waves still taking affect.

"I will. I'll tell you everything. But first, get some sleep." All the pain had gone now, and he made to stand up, but you were so desperate to stay pain free that you let your head fall onto his shoulder before he could move too far away.

"Sorry...I just...I learned last night, White Mages make the best pillows. I spent half the night curled up in Yuna's lap." It was awkward to have to be this close to a guy you really didn't know all that well, but at the same time you couldn't remember the last time you had felt this calm and warm inside since they took the Nethicite out of you. It was almost amazing the way he radiated healing magic. Yuna had to consciously work to keep the magic flowing into you, but with him as long as you were physically connected it would just naturally wash over you.

"Oh, so you did have some help last night. That's good to hear. I was worried you were either made of titanium or just plain stupid." He put an arm around your shoulder and tucked your head under his chin so you were able to rest fully against him. "You're right though. I'm a damn good snuggle buddy."

You laughed a little but ultimately slipped back into your tired, mopey mood, "Maybe I am stupid. I'd half convinced myself I could just get used to it. I'm not exactly a stranger to pain, but..." You heaved a heavy sigh as you tried to come to terms with reality. "There's no getting used to it, is there?"

He was silent for an unusually long time, which wasn't exactly a comfort.

"No, I don't think so." He finally said. "Look...you should get some sleep. We can talk all you want later." He got to his feet and ran a hand through his messy hair before sighing himself. He was barely three feet away from you when you could start to feel the pain coming back in its dull, lingering way.

"Are you leaving?" You asked as you began to get settled into your bed. You almost didn't want him to go, thinking you would probably need his help again sooner rather than later.

"Lu would kill me if I did. I'll be here, if you don't mind." He said, making his way over to your desk chair and falling tiredly into it.

"I'm sorry you have to do this." You said as you pulled the covers up to your chin and let your head fall heavily onto your pillow.

"Don't be. I like to be needed. Makes me feel important." He shrugged as he rolled the chair over to the foot of your bed and putting his feet up so he could slouch down into his chair, probably preparing for a nap.

The two of you fell silent after that, though you were pretty sure neither of you had fallen asleep. You had so many questions burning in your mind, but he seemed determined not to answer any of them until he was good and ready to. Finally, you couldn't help it anymore.

"Ven?"

"Hmmm?" He grunted, his eye closed and his arms crossed over his chest, but he clearly wasn't asleep.

"So this thing Lulu and Aqua seem to think I have..."

He sighed, "Yeah?"

"Do you also think I have it?"

He paused, opening his eyes and looking you over with what you thought was a very conflicted look for a good long time. "I...don't know." He admitted, and you scoffed. All that time he spent thinking of what to say, and that was what he came up with. "Well, look, you have to understand; the thing they are talking about here...it's not exactly something you can catch walking down the street."

"Well where would you catch it?" You shot back.

"A lab. A test tube. A test tube in a very illegal lab. It just...it just doesn't make any sense that you would have it. But..."

"But?"

" _But_  you aren't responding to regular brands of healing, like what Yuna tried on you, and you are responding to this very specific kind of healing."

"It has its own specific kind of healing?" You asked, propping yourself up onto your elbows and looking at him curiously.

"It does, and not many people can do it."

"But you can?"

"I can." He nodded, then ran a hand through his hair again, mumbling under his breath, "Hell, I'm the resident expert."

"What?" You asked, hearing that he said something, but not able to tell exactly what he said.

"Nothing. Just go to sleep. I still have a few more hours left until I have to make good on my promise." He said, settling back into his chair. You looked at the clock and saw it was almost 9:00 a.m., and realized that he promised yesterday to tell you what was going on if Lulu didn't come up with anything in her research first.

"Fine...hey, maybe you could teach me how to do that kind of healing magic."

He laughed, "I don't think you're cut out for advanced white magic. All White Mages are Black Mages, but not all Black Mages are White Mages. Anyone can learn basic healing spells; cure, esuna, and the like...but people with your kind of elemental tendency don't usually to make it far passed the basics. It's kinda hard to heal somebody when your base instinct is to fry them."

"What makes a good healer? What element type are you?"

"The best healers tend to be water elementals...you know, like Aqua, Aerith, and Yuna. But I've always leaned towards an air tendency. Maybe I'm really a water mage, I don't know. Some people just have a knack for healing, so they stop focusing on Black Magic and generally stick to learning White Magic. I'm probably about as good as you are with most black magic."

You glared at him, "...Thanks..."

"Shut up, you've had  _one_ day of training. Now go to sleep before I put you to sleep." He warned, settling back into his chair. You sighed and rolled over so your back was to him, guessing that you were lucky to even get that much out of him. Finally, you were able to quiet your racing thoughts and fall asleep.

∞

You didn't know how long you had been asleep before something was tickling your hand and woke you up. You tried to keep the glare off your face as you saw it was Ven prodding your palm with his fingers.

"What are you doing?" You asked tiredly.

"Sorry, you were fidgeting. I thought something might be wrong."

"I wasn't fidgeting...I was dreaming."

He scoffed, "Oh, well you might have told me."

You scoffed right back, "How could I? I was asleep."

"Well there you go. Blame it on your poor communications skills, not me."

"I'm gonna blame it on...hey..." You had just sat up in bed so you could fluff out your pillow before going back to sleep, when you noticed something off about his face. It took you a second of studying his features to figure out what was wrong in this tired state, but there it was, plain as day. "Are you messing with me?"

"What?" He blinked at you tiredly. Apparently you were both sleepy and grumpy.

"The contacts?"

"What contacts?" He shrugged.

"Your eyes are green." You said, looking from one emerald iris to the other, completely confused. You didn't see any rim or lining of a colored contact, but all the same his eyes were definitely green right now.

"My eyes are blue." He sounded about as confused as you were.

"Yeah, normally. Right now, they're green."

He bit his cheek and gave you a funny look, "Smile for me, and lift up both hands."

You did as he said, glaring at him slightly as you forced yourself to smile.

"Hmmm...so you're not having a stroke..." He said, eyeing you carefully with what were definitely green eyes.

You huffed at him, realizing he just thought you were insane, and threw the blankets off and got out of bed to walk over to the desk where there was a small makeup mirror. You tossed it to him, and he rolled his eyes before looking into it.

"If you're trying to punk me, I'll—Holy shit." He mumbled, holding the mirror up to eye level then getting to his feet.

"See?" You said triumphantly, taking back the mirror from him.

He looked at you, then at the mirror in your hands, then at you again before blinking several times in a row, like he was trying to blink the color away or something. When he stopped he looked at you again and you shook your head to tell him they were still green as ever. He froze in the spot, trying to figure out what was going on. "I have to leave."

"What? Why? Is something wrong?" You set the mirror down and looked at him worriedly.

"No. I'm fine. I just..." He trailed off, looking at you strangely as if he was seeing you for the first time. The little shorts you had worn to bed rolled up during your sleep, exposing the soft smooth skin of your thighs. The oversized t-shirt you wore had slipped off one shoulder and he could see the delicate curve of your collar bone. It was like he was dazed. 

"Ven?" You called out, seeing that he was staring at your neck.

"I need to go." He snapped out of it, though he didn't dare look at your face as he turned to get his shoes from the floor.

"Should I get Lulu? Are you sure you're okay? You seem a little—"

"No, no. I'm absolutely fine, I just can't be here right now." He jammed his feet into his shoes roughly, stepping on the backs and not bothering to tie the laces. He was about to run out of the room when you grabbed him by the arm and made him face you.

"You're sure? You're being really weird..."

He didn't answer. Instead green eyes seemed to study your face. The concerned arch in your brows, the spark in your worried eyes, the faint frown that curved soft looking lips.

"Ven...?"

"I'll send Aqua over. Bye." He pushed passed you for the door, and dashed out after shutting it behind himself.

"Wai-Ven!" You tried, but he was halfway down the stairs and ready to sprint for the door before you could even finish his name, which was impressive considering he didn't exactly have a long name. You were left standing alone and very confused in your room. "What the hell?" You mumbled to no one in particular.

The doorbell rang and you figured it was probably Aqua. You walked downstairs and found your mother in the kitchen making lunch with Aqua already inside talking to her. They were smiling and laughing, so you knew this wasn't a serious talk. It certainly wasn't Lulu here to tell her there was something wrong with you. You stopped and cursed internally as you realized Ven had skipped off before telling you anything about what was going on. You wondered if maybe he did the whole 'green eyes' thing to distract you and get away.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈! There you are. Why didn't you tell me you were planning on having a magic lesson here?" Your mother said as you walked into the kitchen. You looked at Aqua, who winked at you.

"Sorry. I didn't get a chance to see you last night." You shrugged. It wasn't a lie. Between the movie party and the sleepover, you really hadn't seen your mother or Basch at all yesterday.

"Well, go on then. Try not to blow the fuse box again."

"Oh, you know about that?" You scratched your cheek with a sheepish laugh.

"Of course I do. You've never been very good at hiding things from me." She replied, shaking her head at you. As you looked over at Aqua you couldn't help but to think how wrong your mother was about that. "Well, go on then. Lunch will be ready in a little while, but you should go get started on your lesson."

You nodded and began to lead Aqua out to the backyard where she picked up where she left off with yesterday's magic lesson. You warmed up with breathing exercises, which you found oddly calming today since your head was so full of thoughts and your chest racked with pain. She knew you were suffering from the way the ball of electric energy in your hands would grow uncontrollable for brief moments as your breathing became labored while you fought off a fresh wave of pain, then return to a neutral state as you regained composure. She said nothing though, knowing there was very little she could do to help.

"Lulu likes to say there are few better teachers than pain. I wish I could help you, but I think she's right in this case." Aqua was saying as the lesson turned from breathing to passing a single bolt from one hand to another and then sending it to Aqua, who did the same before giving it back again. She could see on your face that you weren't doing very well, despite your determination to keep going. "I could heal you, and you would feel better for a while...but the pain is always going to come back, and I might not always be here."

"I get it. I need to learn to handle it on my own." You said through gritted teeth as you felt the blot weaken when she passed it off to you. You fought to get it bright and buzzing again before passing it to your other hand then back to her.

She had a look of admiration for you, and you flushed slightly as you struggled again to bring you energy back up to her level as the bolt fizzled when it was returned to you. You hoped you could keep this stoic attitude up, because deep down you felt desperate to ask to stop and have her heal you.

She kept you at it for hours, teaching different techniques and forms of exerting your energy, as well as how to repress it fully until you had need to summon it back. You felt yourself getting more fluid with your manifestations of energy, and it made you feel good to have control over something in your life again. You were confident you wouldn't be setting off freak charges or shorting out your house anytime soon, regardless of what the pain in your chest did to you. It was your magic; it should listen to you. Not whatever was causing the pain in your chest.

The day's practice then turned from lightning, you were surprised to see, as Aqua began to teach you how to shape your energy out of it's natural lightning form and into others, starting with fire. Fire came easily to you. It wasn't so different from lightning, after all. They were both so intense and you could feel the heat in your veins the same way you normally felt the tingling buzz. Fire seemed to take a toll on you though, you noticed as you looked down and saw the skin on your arms had gone pink with a flush of heat, and you had to ask her to stop and change to a different element as you felt your hands burning with retained heat even when you weren't actively producing a flame. You were pretty sure they were hot enough you could melt through an iceberg.

Aqua didn't realize you were able to manifest the fire element this strongly until you asked to stop, and she realized how much stronger your magic had gotten in just the past hour alone. "Actually, I think we're done with magic for the day." She said, taking you over to a bench in the garden so you could recover. She had to coat her hands in ice and take yours with frosted fingers to help you cool off as she talked you through how to manifest the other elements, but she finished by saying you would have to wait until tomorrow to try.

You protested, saying you wanted to learn more today, but she just smiled softly and shook her head, clamming she didn't want to exhaust your energy.

"Have some patience. You're already miles ahead of where you were yesterday." She said, taking an iced hand to your forehead to help cool your still flame-flushed face.

"But I still have such a long way to go." You sighed, wishing you knew how to use ice magic so you could help yourself.

"You such a natural, it'll be a matter of weeks before your all caught up with your classmates. I barely have to give you any instruction at all before you're able to crack off bolts of lightning or spit fire from your fingertips. Most people need to get the techniques and the movements down first, then they work their way up to actually being able to produce the element. You're fire first, form second. It's a little bit hard to teach you." She admitted. Then an idea seemed to strike her. "Have you ever done any kind of dance?"

You almost laughed, "No."

"Then I have an idea how you can keep practicing, even when I'm not around." She said, getting to her feet. You didn't like the look on her face that she got after you said 'no.'

You tentatively followed her in standing up, and she held her arms out in front of her like a ballerina. "For most people, manifesting an element is one thing, but for people like us, we can do a little better than that. On Gran Pulse, there are famous groups of Elemental Dancers who can manipulate the elements around them in ways you couldn't even begin to imagine. I've always wanted to be a water dancer." She said, raising a hand and pulling a stream of water from thin air. It circled her like a ribbon as she spun on the ball of her foot, and when she stopped spinning it continued to twirl around her until she raised her hand again and it followed her fingers, forming a ball in the sky above her hand. She continued to preform her dance for you, the ball of water breaking its shape to swirl around her every so often. It was beautiful to watch, and mesmerizing.

By the time she had finished, you were so impressed you didn't even care that you were a clumsy dancer at best. You just wanted to learn how to do the things she could do, with magic and her body. Her finishing move involved kicking a foot so far above her own head she was literally doing to splits in the air, and she kicked the ball of water so it shattered and returned to the air as she brought her foot down and bowed.

"What do you think? Do you want to learn?" She asked, panting slightly.

The words "Yes!" came out of your mouth before you even told yourself to say it.

"Good. Then let's see where you're at flexibility wise before we get started."

The smile dropped off your face right there and then. This wasn't going to be quite as fun or easy as you thought.

∞

It was fully dark out before you went inside for dinner, feeling sore and tired and a little bit hopeless. You just didn't have a mind of choreography, and you felt stiff and awkward doing movements that seemed to come so naturally to her. She kept telling you the same thing everyone was saying about your magic, that it would take time and practice and you'd get better. Frankly, you were getting tired of hearing that line.

You were more than happy to finally call it quits when she got a call from Lulu, and Cloud came out to tell you dinner was ready. You almost didn't even care what her conversation with Lulu was about as you ran inside to get some food in you, feeling like you hadn't eaten in days after all the physical activity Aqua was making you do.

You had just gotten seated at the table for family dinner, when Cloud started to make fun of how messy your hair looked and how you smelled like grass from all the times you fell over. You were about to shoot back some insults of your own about how he didn't even leave the house all day, when your mom and Basch entered the room with dinner. You held your tongue, knowing they didn't like the two of you squabbling at the table, no matter how good natured it was.

Basch asked you about how magic training was going, having seen a good bit of what you were doing from the window of his office, and the conversation was kept fairly light and pleasant. They really had no idea what was going on with you. Then Aqua walked into the room with a grim expression on her face, and you got the feeling they would soon.

"Mr. and Mrs. Strife? I'm afraid I need to talk to you."

Your step-dad looked at your mother, who looked at you with an accusatory eyebrow raise, "What did you do, muffin?"

"I didn't—" But before you could finish your protest Aqua spoke up.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ hasn't done anything. It's more...about her. Please, finish your dinner. I'll wait outside for Lulu." She had a gloom to her you had never seen before.

This didn't bode well for you, you knew.

It was hard to get back to eating and conversing like nothing had just happened. Your parents were having a silent conversation with their eyes, asking if either knew what this was about, and you and Cloud were pretty much doing the same. He looked at you and you shrugged. He raised an eyebrow and you shrugged again, this time more deliberately. He eyed you skeptically as he took a bite of food, probably suspicious ever since Ven showed up at the house yesterday. Tifa probably told him what you had said to her. You wondered if he bought it. Based off his current expression, you guessed not.

Your mother barely touched her food since Aqua came in, but Basch at least pretended he was still interested in eating while you and Cloud were still going at your food. When you had finally finished there was no excuse for them to stay any longer, and they both got to their feet almost as soon as you put your fork down. They made to go to the living room, and when you tried to follow your mother told you that maybe you should go do the dishes while the adults talked.

You felt yourself boil with anger at that. This was your problem. You had every right to know what was going on with you. But you didn't want to try to fight her on this in front of Basch.

"Fine." You spat venomously as you returned to the table to gather the dishes while they walked off together. Cloud tried to follow them, but you heard him get sent upstairs by Basch a moment later. That at least made you feel a little better.

You skulked off to the kitchen and scrubbed everything clean as quickly as you could and threw it all in the dishwasher before turning the lights off and walking over to the kitchen door and pressing your ear to it.

Lulu was there now, and she was the one doing all the talking as far as you could tell. You missed the first bit of their conversation, but you picked up at what you thought was a good enough place. You at least knew what they were talking about still.

"We found it there on the first day of school, implanted in her neck. She asked me to remove it, so I did, thinking it was nothing more than Midgar magic law regulations. I see now that this is not the case. I believe was put there in the hopes it might prevent the spreading of a very rare condition brought about by the ShinRa corporations illegal experimentations on Mako energy in humans."

"Geostigma?" You heard Basch gasp, and you made a face. There were lots of people in the Midgar slums who had Geostigma. It was a terrible disease that left people with open sores that would weep with awful gray, tainted blood. You didn't have anything like that going on, you thought. You had crippling chest pains.

"Almost. The Geostigma you are thinking of is a result from Mako energy poisoning. Toxic exposure from facility waste dumps, old or cheaply made Mako based equipment and technology, factory work, even being exposed to well contained Mako for too long causes a thickening of the blood that makes it a slowly moving poison that spreads until the heart can no longer pump it. This is not the case with ≈≈≈≈≈≈."

You breathed a sigh of relief. It sounded like a terrible fate to have your own blood slowly start to solidify, killing you from within. 

"In my time at ShinRa, I was charged with researching and developing a cure for the stigma, and I ran into several encrypted files detailing 8 cases of a similar brand of disease. It is known also as Geostigma because we simply didn't know what else to call it. The files were corrupted, and it was clear ShinRa wanted them hidden, but we were able to attain at least a little bit of information from them. There was mention of experimentation leading to a condition that alters the blood and way the heart pumps it. It doesn't turn to congealed, curdled blood. It is simply...altered. It causes the victim great pain as it spreads. The files don't tell us what causes it, or why, only that it's original purpose was for the creation of super-SOLDIERS for ShinRa's use. They possess excelled strength, or magical abilities, far beyond what regular people should be capable of, but at a great cost. They are wracked with pain, plagued by feverish dreams, their hearts are easily overworked, and in the longest documented case, madness in later life. It's called 'an incurable infestation,' and is similar to the stigma you know of, in that the immune system works to eliminate the toxic substance in the blood...but there is no natural antibody for this lab-manufactured disease, so all that happens is the body continually weakens itself."

Basch laughed, "And you think our ≈≈≈≈≈≈ has this...this...super-SOLDIER poison/enhancement in her? Where in the world would she come into contact with such a thing?"

You held your breath, suspecting you knew exactly how. You waited for your mother to speak, wanting her to say what you were thinking. But when she finally spoke, you felt your heart sink. "Why did you remove the stone without asking my permission first?" There was thinly veiled anger in her voice.

 _'Does she...know about this?'_   You felt sick.

"The girl thought it had something to do with her father—with his work at ShinRa. The look on her face when I told her...she was ready to tear it out with her fingernails if she had to." Came Lulu's ever calm and cool response, not thrown at all by your mother's harsh tone.

"Her father's work at ShinRa?" Basch asked, apparently your mother hadn't told him everything. 

"He..." She began hesitantly, "He was involved with a criminal branch within the ShinRa research department. I didn't know until it was too late. He conducted experiments on my son, Cauis, shortly after he was born, and then on me—without my knowledge—while I was pregnant with ≈≈≈≈≈≈, then on her for years after. But I took precautions to keep it from affecting her. Precautions  _you_  broke."

You felt her words like a punch to the stomach. She did know. And she kept it from you. You sank down to the ground, hugging your knees into your chest as you continued to listen.

"So it's actually possible for her to have this...condition?" Basch sounded dumbfounded.

"Your 'precaution' was breaking down anyway. I only noticed the stone was in her because her magic was cracking it, and breaking through to the surface already. It would have only been a matter of time before it broke on its own. Here, take a look at the Nethicite." You heard a faint clatter, and figured Lulu must have dropped the small stone from the necklace down on the table, "Does it even resemble what was originally put in there?

"I'm afraid I don't understand. Why would you do such a thing?" Basch asked, and you didn't know if he was talking to Lulu or your mother without being able to see him.

"I was...I was afraid hey were going to take her away. ShinRa was going to try to take anyone involved in the experiments once they found out about the research team's work. Luxord was fired immediately along with the rest of their team, and while he was awaiting trial for illegal testing and research, he snapped. He tried to kill them, rather than let them be taken once it was clear he wasn't going to be the one involved with their cases any longer. I don't know what happened to Caius. Maybe he got away, or maybe Luxord was successful in killing him, or maybe ShinRa got their hands on him. But after that night, Luxord was taken away, charged with the murder of our son and thrown in jail. The research team had done their best to destroy the files detailing their work, and I realized when no one came to try and take ≈≈≈≈≈ that they must have thought Caius was the only one in our family who had been experimented on. I had the Nethicite put in ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ to make sure she didn't show any signs of anything abnormal, so no one would ever question her or try to take her. I was never really sure myself if she had been truly infected, only that he had tried."

"The encrypted files I stole shortly before leaving the company myself...there were only two that detail in utero experimentation. One was a boy, and one a girl conducted a year and a half after. There are no names on the files—as you have said they are tampered with—but I believe ≈≈≈≈≈≈ is the girl mentioned in this file." You were sure she handed something over to your mother to read.

You jumped suddenly, as you noticed Cloud had walked into the room from the dining room entrance and slid down to sit beside you silently. He put his arm around you and tucked your head under his chin. You hadn't realized it, but somewhere along the way you had started crying.

"What are we supposed to do about this?" Basch asked after what felt like ages. "Can we just get more Nethicite?"

"Now that the toxin is in her bloodstream, there's no capping it off again." Lulu said with a sigh. "She just has to live with it."

"What about the other case? The other boy, from a year before her? What happened to him?"

"All five that I have knowledge of are still alive, and living with their conditions as far as I am aware. Your son and daughter were the only one's I wasn't able to track down until now, and I'm afraid I know even less about your son's status and whereabouts than you do. Though there is no cure, and we are fairly certain it will be fatal, all of them seem to have survived thus far. But make no mistake...it's a slow acting death sentence. The poison is already spreading and taking its toll on her."

Silence fell over the room, and you felt a tightness in your chest that for once wasn't caused by what you now knew was Geostigma.

"These other cases...You know the afflicted? Who are they?" Basch asked desperately.

"The only one you need to worry about is Sephiroth." She said simply.

"Sephiroth?" Basch repeated the name as though he recognized it, "The SOLDIER traitor?" He then paused, as if something suddenly clicked, "Is that why he was the best living SOLDIER in generations? The experiments?"

"Yes."

"And his rebellion...he's the one you believe is suffering from madness, isn't he? That's the only thing that could explain his sudden coup." She must have nodded, because she didn't say anything before Basch went on, "Why would we need to worry about him?"

"He's been targeting his sons. We don't know why, but he's hunting them, trying to use them for something. All of them, all four of his boys...they have it too. We had to hide his youngest from him. He's the only one we've been able to keep out of his grasp, apart from him."

"His youngest...do you mean—" Your mother began, and Basch and Lulu both answered for her. 

"Yes."

The door to the kitchen opened and you and Cloud both stiffened then relaxed when you saw it was only Ven.

"What are you doing here?" Cloud asked,  as you began wiping your eyes with the back of your hand.

"I came with Lu." He said simply, walking over to the sink and getting a glass of water before kneeling down in front of you and handing you the glass. "I figured you'd be spying on us. How are you doing?"

Your hands shook badly as you took the glass from him, and it slipped out of your grasp and shattered on the floor. You tried to catch it before it hit the ground, but all you managed to do was cut your fingers on the glass. Fresh crimson blood mixed with the water on the floor, and you felt your heart fall in your chest sadly. It looked like normal blood, but apparently it was killing you. And it was your fathers fault. And your mother knew about it. And  _no one_  told you.

Any words you might have had to answer him before were gone now. A whimper before more tears began to spill was all you managed.

Cloud quickly got up to get a rag for your hand, but before he got back to you Ven had your hand pressed between his, a faint white glow now lighting up the otherwise dark kitchen. Cloud instead moved to pickup the glass, and you let your head fall back against the wall. You always knew your father had left his marks on you before he was taken away, you just didn't think he did it in such a permeant way. You lurched forward as pain stabbed through your chest again, momentarily paralyzing you with its intensity. You began to feel very much liked damaged goods. Like you were supposed to be normal and happy like your mother wanted, but were really just twisted up and broken, and like it was only going to get worse.

"What am I supposed to do now?" You asked through bitter tears that burned your eyes and stained your cheeks.

"When I figure that out for myself, I'll tell you." Ven said, and you looked at him through watery eyes. "The reason I had learn how to heal the symptoms brought on by Geostigma was that I  _needed_  to learn it."

"Your grandfather..." Cloud began, thinking back to how the Rostar's used to be a prominent, wealthy family until Ansem the Wise, their grandfather, was disgraced and imprisoned for some scandal.

"Was one of the ones responsible for the research team, yeah." He said, looking over your cut fingers as they slowly began to heal in his hands until there was no trace of the injury left.

"So...you know how to heal this?" Cloud asked, sounding hopeful. Ven was an incredibly skilled healer, after all.

"I'm sorry, but no. I can't fix this for you. Like Lulu said, there's no curing Geostigma. I can make it better for a little while...but I'm a Band-Aid, at best."

"A Band-Aid is better than nothing, right?" Cloud said but you just closed your eyes, blinking out more tears, and let your head fall against the wall again.

"Maybe we should get you to bed." Ven suggested, putting a hand on your shoulder.

"That's a good idea. Come on, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." Cloud said, pulling you up to your feet. The three of you made your way through the dining room, and Cloud was about to lead you down the back hallway so you could get up to your room without the adults seeing you, but you wanted them to see you. You wanted them to know that you heard everything. You wanted your mother to look you in the eye and know that you knew what she did. That she knew what your father did to you and covered it up.

You broke out of Clouds grasp and walked through the door in the dining room that led to the living room as you made for the stairs. They were reading old looking ShinRa datapads on the couch, and only looked up when they heard Aqua gasp and saw she was staring at something behind them. Lulu was sitting next to her and had a clear view of you, and she held eye contact with you for a moment before your mother turned around.

You glared at her and stood still for a moment, tears still streaking down your cheeks, until you saw the realization on her face that you had been listening.

She got to her feet, "≈≈≈≈≈≈, I—"

"Don't." You turned your back on her and continued to make your way up to your room.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, wait." She said more firmly, realizing now that you had overheard everything.

"I don't want to hear it. You have  _nothing_ to say to me."

"I was just trying to protect you."

"By protecting  _him_ and what  _he_ did to me?" You flared with anger, looking at her over your shoulder.

"Come sit down, let's talk about—" Basch started, but you put your hand on the banister to keep making your way up them only to discover lightning had swarmed around your fists in your fury. As you touched the banister the lights in the house flashed suddenly before the circuits blew and darkness fell. You were half thankful for it, because it gave you the perfect opportunity to slip upstairs to your room.

Cloud and Ven were waiting in the hall for you, but you brushed passed them to your room without a word. You couldn't stop them from following you in, but you were so desperate to be alone for just a minute that you told them you were going for a shower. There was a bathroom connected to your bedroom, so you grabbed some jammies to change into for when you were done, then locked yourself in the bathroom despite the darkness.

You didn't so much shower as turn the water on then collapse on the floor and let your tears mix with the hot water. You half wondered if they could hear your sobs over the water, but you felt so hurt, scared, angry, and betrayed at this point that you didn't really care what they heard or what they thought. You just learned you were dying, and it was your own family who did it to you.

∞

You weren't sure how long you had been in the shower, but you knew it was an outrageously long time. The lights had come back on, though you remained on the floor of your shower in the dark bathroom for a good long time. You just wanted to stop crying before you came out, but it didn't look like that was going to happen any time soon.

You decided to just get it over with and dragged yourself off the floor before stopping the water and wrapping yourself in a towel. You got ready for bed while you dried off, then changed into your jammies and prepared yourself for whatever was waiting on the other side of the door.

Only Ven was there. You let out a relived sigh, having been worried the adults might have come up.

"Is...everything okay?" He asked, sitting up from where he was flopped down on your bed.

"Peachy. You can go, I don't need your help." You kept a low, cold tone to make sure your voice would break.

"Don't lie to me." He shot you a lazy look as he got to his feet, "You just found out your more poison than person. You don't just shake that off."

You walked over to your desk and grabbed the hairbrush off it and began to comb out your wet, tangled hair, "Is this why you left home? Because you found out your parents did this to you?" You got so frustrated with the knots you were encountering that you threatened to either rip out your hair or break the brush.

"No, but it's part of why I don't go back." He took the hairbrush away from you and walked you over to your bed and made you sit so your back was to him. He took your hair from around your shoulders so it was all behind you, and began to gently brush it for you. "No...I was kicked out at 5 because they didn't like the way my symptoms were presenting. They couldn't help me, and they certainly couldn't control me, so they had Lulu take me on as her apprentice. Well, kind of. That makes it sounds like it was a nice gesture meant to help me. I wasn't the perfect son they envisioned for themselves, so they tried to push me off on someone else. If Lulu hadn't offered to take me, who knows where I'd be? An orphanage, maybe. Or dead."

"That's bullshit." Was all you could think to say.

He gave a wry laugh, "It is bullshit, isn't it? Whatever. I'm better off without them." He pulled at a tangle of yours a bit more roughly than he meant to in, then apologized quickly as he remembered he wasn't there to vent his problems. You honestly didn't even feel it though. Numb didn't even begin to describe how you were feeling.

"So you've lived with this...Geostigma...since you were five then?"

"I've lived with it my whole life, same as you. It just wasn't always active. Five was when the flare ups started with me, though. It's a funny disease. It picks and choses when it wants to really act up, but once it starts it's always there. Some days it'll be so bad you can't get out of bed, and some days it'll just be there in the back of your mind. But you can always feel it. Well...I haven't  _really_  felt it in years, ...but I know it's still in there, and still just as active as ever, because I'm always so damn tried from trying to healing it."

You wondered if that's why he always seemed to have that tried glint in his eyes, and lazy drawl to his speech. Lulu said the body exhausted itself trying to fight off the poison in a regular person. You could only imagine what it would be like for someone like him, who couldn't turn off his healing magic inside himself. It would be like it was constantly fighting at full strength to heal something it literally could never heal. You tried to think about what it would do to you if your lightning was just raging 24/7. You could see how it must have been exhausting. You didn't know what was worse: being in constant pain, or being exhausted from fighting it so you didn't have to feel it.

"Could you stop yourself from healing it?"

"I could...but it affects me a little differently from how it does you." He sighed, "I don't like the person I become when I don't have my walls of magic up. I'd rather be tired."

You winced as your heart kicked painfully in your chest. You get the sense that every time it shot out a wave of pain through you, it was the result of a new dose of Geostigma poison being pumped through you. "Tired does sound nicer. I'll be honest, I'm a little jealous." You mumbled, clenching a hand in the fabric of your shirt over your heart.

"I don't envy you..." He finished brushing your hair and you turned to face him as you pulled your hair over your shoulder and began braiding it, "But you're lucky you're not me. Trust me."

You looked at his eyes and noticed they were their usual blue color again, "Hey, what was going on with you earlier?" You asked.

"Mind your own business." He hit you on the knee with the hairbrush lightly before reaching forward and putting it on your nightstand.

"I think we're a little past that." You shot him a dry look.

"I think we're a little past your bedtime."

"Fine. I won't ask again." You said as you crawled into bed, "You look good with green eyes, though. It suits you."

"You know what—" He warned then sighed heavily, mumbling to himself " _Just take the compliment_ ," as he ran a hand through his hair.

As you settled into bed and snuggled into the blankets, sickening thoughts began to run through your head in the silence that fell between you, "You won't...you won't tell your brothers about me, right?"

"I don't even think they know it about me." He shrugged, but then at the sight of your worried expression he leaned over to pull the blankets up to your chin. "Don't worry. If people hear about it, it won't be from me. I won't tell a soul. Try and get some rest."

"Are you going to stay here all night again?"

"If you want me to, I will."

"Won't you get tired—"

"Hey, you don't get to worry about me. I'll be fine. I'm always fine. Rule number one."

"I thought rule number one was 'never listen to Gippal.'" You rolled your eyes and he laughed.

"Yeah, that  _is_  rule number one...Rule number two is something like 'Don't get caught between Axel and Reno in an argument,' and three is 'Ven is always fine.'"

"Even when his eyes go green and he starts freaking out."

"...Go to sleep. God, you're a moment killer."

You grinned a little as you rolled over and made to go to sleep.

∞

Your dreams were paralyzing flashes of green. It looked like the tendrils from the lifestream were wrapping around you, binding you. it was like you were underwater, being dragged down and drowned in the lifestream itself.

You could suddenly see yourself, only it wasn't really you. Your hair was white, and veins were standing out blue-green against your now gray skin. Then you saw your eyes, only they weren't your eyes. The pupils were slit like a snake's eyes, and they were poison green.

You jolted awake, but something was keeping you from fully reacting, like you couldn't move your arms or legs, or open your eyes. Someone was healing you, you realized as you felt fingers ghosting along the skin of your hand and arm, and gentle talking.

"Don't worry about it, its gonna happen sometimes. The dreams are just part of the package." It was Ven.

"Can we stop them?" Cloud asked.

"No. But we can keep her from thrashing around, and try to help with the pain. Try doing what I showed you."

Silence fell, and you felt a new pair of hands on you, colder and shakier than the previous.

"Yeah, exactly. Light waves is all it takes. There's no healing it fully anyway, so you don't even need to worry about fully exerting yourself. You're just dulling the pain so sleep comes easier." Ven was saying, and you felt light healing magic sweep over you from your hand before disappearing.

"It's not so hard." Cloud replied, and you felt new waves of gentle white magic sweep through you, though perhaps less potently.

"Oh sure...tough guy." Ven mumbled, then he smirked lightly as he saw Cloud's fingers get shocked lightly as he got cocky and wasn't thinking about needing to counteract your lighting. Of course, Ven didn't exactly tell him it was something he needed to look out for, but still.

"Okay, it's not so easy either." Cloud sighed.

"Nah, you're doing fine. I take it you've done some healing before?"

"A little. I used to date Aerith in tenth grade, she taught me a little so I could help her practice."

"Really? Frist Gainsborough, now Lockhart? You're a lucky guy."

He gave a light chuckle, "You don't have to tell me twice. You ever get the feeling the girls around here are a whole hell of a lot better than we are?"

Ven laughed, "Ah, maybe for guys like me. But you? You have everything. Your dad's rich, you're good a sports, you're popular, everyone loves you, girls want to date you, guys want to be you...you're kinda perfect, you know that? And I can't even hate you for it, because on top of it all you're a really nice guy."

"What do you mean, 'guys like you?'"

"In case you failed to notice, I'm kind of a freak." He put a glowing hand over yours as you tremored lightly in pain. "Freaks don't usually end up with the pretty girls in school."

"You're not a freak." Cloud said after a moment of silence fell between them.

"Oh yeah? Do me a favor, tell that to my parents. They'll be thrilled to hear it."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to...look, I don't claim to know anything about your life. But I don't think you're a freak just because you're especially good at helping people. As far as I'm concerned, you're one of the good guys. I know ≈≈≈≈≈ thinks so as well." 

"Of course she does. She's a puppy dog. A real Zack 2.0, with added sass. She sees the good in everyone."

"You clearly haven't see her go after Gippal once he's taken her food...But I see what you mean. She's a good kid. She deserves better than this. Better than shaking in her bed, and needing someone to help her get to sleep."

"Yeah, but don't worry about her. She'll be alight. She's a lot stronger than you'd think, and certainly a lot stronger than I am. If I muddled through, she'll be just fine."

Cloud watched Ven for a moment, observing as he hovered a hand over yours, showering your skin in pale white-green healing light. "So...you just heal yourself continually, all the time?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"How do you have anything left over to help anyone else? I've just been doing it a couple minutes, and I can already feel it."

"Well for starters, I've been practicing since I was five. And even without the stigma I would have been some kind of white mage. Magic isn't natural to you like it is to me. Besides, I got lucky. Each of us—everyone who has this specific brand of Geostigma—has a strong suit. Its like, altogether we would have made a perfect being. I have unnaturally strong healing magic. She has a storm of black magic sitting just below the surface. Sephiroth's sons all have different gifts too with weapons. One's good with long-range, one's good with short, and one's good mid ranged weapons. The fourth son hasn't started showing signs of the stigma's affects yet, but if I had to guess I'd say he has some kind of super human strength."

"What about Sephiroth, himself?"

"I don't know. Probably all of that rolled into one. I mean, he is the first true super-SOLIDER they made. Maybe they decided after he was made they wanted their experiments to be more specialized." He sighed, "I wish we knew more about what their plans for us had been. It kinda sucks finding out you were born a pawn in someone else's game, and then the real kicker comes when you realize that the chess board's been long since abandoned."

"Lulu doesn't know anything about what the intended purpose for the experiments was?"

"No. All research was either encrypted or destroyed."

"Perhaps not all of it." Lulu said suddenly. Both the boys started, and you would have jumped if you weren't under the influence of Ven's magic.

"Whoa, when did you get there?" Ven asked, sounding as startled as you felt.

"Just now. What are you two doing?"

"I was teaching Cloud some magic to help ≈≈≈≈≈≈ sleep."

"That's good...but I think it's time for bed, Cloud." She said coolly.

"...Alright." Cloud said, and you heard him get to his feet. "Goodnight."

"Night."

"You should sleep too, Ventus." Lulu said.

"I will." He shrugged.

"Go on then. I'll take over watching her." You heard the sound of Lulu walking over and taking the chair Cloud had been in. You felt a hand brush the hair away from your face, and recognized it to be Lulu's hand by the way the magic in her skin felt. "Sleep." She said, and you weren't sure if she was talking to you or to Ven. As you felt Ven lay his head against his arms on the side of your bed while remaining in his seat, you also began to feel yourself being forced to sleep by her magic.

∞

You woke up the next day with Aqua sitting at your bedside with a book in her hands.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, how do you feel?"

"I'm fine." You sat up, feeling like your face was still red and swollen from crying last night, and like your eyes were threatening to start watering again at any minute.

"It's alright to be upset, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." She put a hand on your shoulder, and you jerked away.

"I said I'm fine." You snapped, then you ran a hand through your hair and sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean...I'm just...upset."

"It's okay. Acceptance takes time." Something in the gentleness of her tone seemed to hit harder than Lulu's cold, scientific tone or your mothers angry tone ever could.

You covered your eyes with your hand as the tears began to fall again, "I don't want to accept anything. I just want to be normal."

"I know. We don't get to chose what happens to us, but we do get a say in how we handle it."

"I think I want to handle it by staying in bed and crying until this all goes away."

"It's not going to go away." 

"You don't know that."

"Come on, why don't we go have a training lesson?"

"No offense, Aqua, but I just found out I'm dying because of the _fucking_ ShinRa corporation. I don't really feel like training."

"Geostigma might be a death sentence, but you're not dead yet. Don't act like you are, and don't give up. We still know so little about what's going on with you, who knows what might happen down the road? You might get worse, yes, but you might get better too. We might even find a cure."

You sighed weakly, "Now you're just trying to tell me what I want to hear."

"Maybe I am, but we don't know enough to be sure. I haven't given up on you, or Ven. Please don't give up on yourself."

You rubbed your eyes, cursing the headache your tears had brought on, "Alright...but I don't want to talk to my mother."

"You're going to have to—"

"Aqua. I don't want to talk to her."

"...Okay...Come on." She said a little sadly as she got to her feet. The two of you walked out of your room and down to the main floor where you made for backyard without Aqua while she went to get you something to eat for breakfast.

∞

Every Sunday afternoon Basch liked to throw a backyard dinner party for the neighborhood, so despite your efforts to avoid your family and hide out in the backyard practicing magic, eventually Basch came out to fire up the grill.

He only made awkward small talk about how you were feeling, and how your day was while you gave one word answers before pretending like your magic was requiring great concentration. Really you were just worried he was only talking to you so he could report back to your mother. Cloud came out to help him set up the table on the deck, and he also seemed overly interested in you. You wished sorely that everyone would just leave you alone. Every time the words "are you okay" came up, you felt yourself getting that much closer to breaking down again. Obviously it showed in your face, otherwise they wouldn't keep asking.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, maybe we should take it easy." Aqua said, seeing your reddening eyes and the sloppiness of your movements becoming more apparent as the pain from the stigma and everyone's prying looks started getting to you.

"I can keep going, it's okay."

"We don't need to push it...maybe we could just take a quick break."

"I don't need a break."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, why don't you come help me get the buffet table ready?" Basch asked.

"No, I don't need a—."

"I know you don't, I just need your help setting up. It's almost three o'clock, people are going to be arriving soon." Basch said, and you looked at Aqua. She nodded for you to go, and you sighed as you headed up to the deck where Cloud was arranging plates and cups around snack bowls filled with chips and pretzels and things. He asked you to go get the salads from the kitchen, so you trudged inside. You weren't even a full foot in the kitchen when you saw your mother was in there preparing them. At the sight of you, she put down the salad tongs and opened her mouth to say something, but you left just as quickly as you came as soon as you saw her. Without telling Cloud or saying a word to your mother, you just went upstairs to your room. Looking at her just made it all cut a little deeper. She knew the whole time, and just never though it worth mentioning to you that you might have been your father's lab rat.

You plopped down into bed and buried your head in the pillows. If it was just an illness, maybe you would have been able to get over it. But this? Your family sold you out. And worse, when it didn't work they just tried to hide it. Caius died for it. And now you were dying for it too. Your mother wasn't trying to protect you; she was in denial.

You weren't sure how long you had been up in your room, but you heard music and talking coming from outside so you figured it had been long enough that the party started. That meant someone would come up and try to drag you out there soon enough. You decided you didn't want to get pulled into their party and thought that maybe you could go over to see Riku.

You climbed out the window and crossed the tree over to Riku's window, but it was dark in there like no one was home. You sighed, thinking he must have been in your backyard right now for the party. You decided to just head up to his roof to hang out where no one would brother you. You thought you just wanted to go up there to be alone, but then you saw Roxas was already up there by himself with his head in the clouds and music in his ears.

"Roxy?" You called to him as you walked up, but he was too lost in his music to hear you. "Rox." You kicked his foot lightly to get his attention once you were next to him and saw his eyes were closed, and he sat up with a startled expression.

"Oh, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." He put a hand over his heart as he settled back into his comfortable laying position, "You know, you can't just go around kicking people."

"Well, you never hear me when I call you."

"Ever heard of a tap on the shoulder?"

"No." You said simply, and he glared at you lightly. "What are you listening to?" You asked, sitting on the roof beside him. He pulled out an earbud and offered it to you, and you had to lay on your back next to him to make it comfortable. Luckily he wasn't very interested in looking over at you because he was so comfortable, otherwise he might have seen your puffy and red eyes.

You sat there in silence for a while, just listening to the songs changing and the wind blowing, eventually moving over to use his shoulder as a pillow. His taste in music was pretty similar to your own, only he knew way more bands and songs than you did, with a little more rock and punk thrown in. But you enjoyed it all the same. It was quiet, he wasn't asking you questions, and you didn't feel like crying for the first time in hours. You would have been content to sit out there all night, away from your family, but then suddenly everything went quiet.

"My...iPod just died..." He admitted sheepishly, and you laughed.

"Of course it did. That's just my luck." You mumbled.

"Is something wrong today?" He asked, rolling the cord of the headphones around the small iPod before pocketing it. You tried not to let your irritation at being ask that question get the better of you. He didn't know any better.

"No, everything's alright. I'm just...feeling a little down, is all." You sighed, letting your head fall heavy against his shoulder.

"The sun didn't come out today, it's probably all this darkness." He shrugged.

"Yeah, maybe. I guess that's the downside of living here. It's always kinda gloomy, even when it's sunny."

"You know, I've heard there's this place that's almost in the same spot in the galaxy as us, only in the opposite position. It's called Twilight Town, because the sun is permanently hanging on the horizon, never rising, never falling. It sounds...nice. Really nice. I'd like to see it. Maybe we'll make it out there one day, and shake away the gloom."

"A world of eternal sunshine, huh? I dunno. I think—"

"It'd be hard for you to nap with all that sunlight?" Roxas laughed at you, and you elbowed him lightly.

"So...why are you up here?" You asked.

"Oh, I dunno. My parents and Sora all went over to your party, but I guess I just didn't feel like it. I was going to apologize to you for skipping out on your party, but clearly you don't mind."

"Hey, it's not my party." You shrugged, and silence fell between you both for a moment.

"Why are  _you_  up here?" He finally asked.

"I wanted to be alone."

"Oh. Well, sorry, then." He said a bit sheepishly.

"Oh, no, it's—that not what I meant. I mean, I did want to be alone, but I don't mind if you're here. It's mostly my parents, anyway. They're driving me crazy."

"So what's the trouble in the Strife household? Homework? Messy room? Laundry need doing? In our house, it's always the messy rooms."

"They're just being annoying, really." You didn't really know what else to say. "They wanted me to help with their party and I just wanted to to be left alone, you know?"

"Yeah...my mom always pitches a fit at us if we don't go to Basch's little Sunday shindigs. Says we need to do things as a family more. But it's all bullshit. We haven't done anything as a family in years. We don't even really live together as a family."

"And that bothers you?"

"Not really, but if she wants to try to manipulate us into doing something by claiming it's a family affair, then she could at least invite the whole family."

"You...want her to invite Ven?"

"No." He sighed. "I don't know. It's just...I grew up hearing nothing but how terrible, selfish, and out of control he was. But did you know I've never even really had a conversation with him? Not once. When we were younger, our parents wouldn't allow us to see or talk to him. But now...I just don't know. I thought they were right, and just avoided the hell out of him like they do. But...he's helping you, right?"

"How'd you know that?" You felt your heart speed up as you realized he might know about your sickness, and how you could barely function for 24 hours without Ven's help.

"I'm in class with you. I've seen it." He said, and you blinked.

"Oh. Yeah, he is. I'd never have been able to learn to control my magic without him."

"So he's not that bad of a guy, right? I mean, you like him well enough, and so does Axel. Hell, Axel says he's been friends with him for years. Maybe it's all just more of my parent's bullshit."

"Trust me, you're preaching to the choir about full of shit parents. You know, you think there are lines that they wont cross, especially when it comes to their kids, but no."

He chuckled, "Sounds like we need to go start an 'I hate my parents and the man' rock band."

You laughed, "Maybe we do. You could do vocals."

"Shut up."

"No you shut up, you're a good singer."

"Alright. So what would you do?"

"Lead guitar." You scoffed, as if insulted he would even ask.

The two of you went on like that for a good long while, just chatting and hanging out away from it all. You felt really good talking to him, despite the occasional pains. This was the most normal you had felt all day. You had almost forgotten, until Roxas broke the quite that fell between you as you started stargazing, and brought it all back to you.

"Should...you be getting to the party any time soon?"

"No." You said simply.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈? Won't your parents be looking for you?"

"Who cares?"

"Did something happen?"

"No."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈."

"Nothing happened." You crossed your arms and rolled onto your side so you were facing away from him.

"Since when do you lie to me?"

"Since when do you butt into my business?"

"Hey, you said so yourself, I'm your best friend. It comes with the territory." He put a hand on your shoulder to turn you over to face him again, but he touched you just as your heart shot out a fresh wave of pain as it pumped out more poison, and he retracted his hand with a gasp. You shot upright, staring over at him in terror that he felt it. He had more magic in him than he knew about, so you weren't sure if he had any of Ven's white magic talent and could feel what you did. "What the fuck was that?"

Oh yeah. He felt it. You could always tell when he was freaking out because of his sudden potty mouth and inability to shut up.

"It was nothing!"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈! That was not nothing, damn it. Don't lie to me!"

"It's okay! Calm down." You tried, but he was on his feet looking frantic.

"You're not okay. What the hell is going on?" He half-yelled, putting his hands on your shoulders. 

"Don't yell at me!" You knew he was just yelling because he was scared, but despite your best efforts to keep yourself calm you felt your eyes begin to sting and water. You felt yourself being to cry and you couldn't stop the sobs despite biting down on your lip.

"I-I'm sorry, I just—" You knocked his hands off your shoulders and turned on your heel to quickly make for your room again. "≈≈≈≈≈≈, wait!" He called after you, but you took off running for the tree. He tried to catch up with you, but you were back in your bedroom before he even got to the edge of the roof. You shut the window and closed the curtains, then threw yourself back into bed to try and pull yourself together.

You heard your phone start buzzing nonstop on the night stand, but you were done with world tonight. Part of you felt done with the world permanently. You just wanted to forget, and find peace in the quite of your room, but your own body would force you to remember as stabs of pain clawed through your chest.

∞

It felt like a lot of time passed since you put your head down to cry in your pillows. The music and chatter from the party died down, and the house grew quiet again until someone knocked on your door.

You didn't answer, and you didn't open the door, so they knocked again.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈? It's Ven."

You sighed and sat up in bed, "What do you want?"

"Just checking on you."

"I'm fine. Go home." You said, trying hard to dry your eyes as if to prove to yourself that you were in fact fine. He didn't say anything, and you half wondered if maybe he had left, when you heard the lock click open. He pushed open the door, then returned the little key to its place on the door frame before letting himself in. "I don't need your help."

"I see you're still taking this pretty hard."

"What do you mean? I'm great." You scoffed and swiped at a tear that was making its way down your cheek. You wanted so badly to stop crying, but it seemed out of your control at this point.

"Can I do anything for you?"

"You got a time machine? Or some 'forget the past 24 hours' drug?"

"How about some water? Or some food? When was the last time you ate?"

"I'm not very hungry." You shrugged.

"Not really what I asked." He sighed as he grabbed the water bottle of your nightstand and made for your bathroom sink to fill it. At least if you dropped your water bottle when he handed it to you it wouldn't shatter, you thought bitterly as he returned. "So...have you talked to your mother?"

"Have you talked to yours?" You shot back so quickly he hesitated as he tried to hand you the bottle.

"Fair point." He shrugged, sitting in the chair that was still by your bed and giving you the bottle. You took a sip and found that you were actually desperately thirsty. While you were busy chugging nearly half the bottle, your phone began to buzz on the nightstand again. Seeing that you were busy, Ven picked it up. He laughed, "Six missed calls from Roxas? Did he mess up, or did you? Ooo, and a text from Genesis Rhapsodos...asking you out on a coffee date? Wow. You Strife's sure know how to pick 'em." He sighed, throwing your phone over to you.

"What?" You mumbled, looking over the notifications. You had a voicemail and a few missed calls from Roxas, and Genesis had indeed sent a text in reply to your dare to ask him out, though you could only see "I'd love to meet you for coffee or a dinner date..." while the phone was still locked. You quickly put in the passcode to go read his message, while Ven watched you with a sour look on his face.

"So...I didn't know you were going out with Rhapsodos."

'I'd love to meet you for coffee or a dinner date sometime this week, it would be my privilege. Please let me know when you are available, or perhaps we could discuss it in person on Monday. I am already looking forward to it' You felt your cheeks heat up a little as you read the words over again.

"I'm uh...I'm not going out with him."

"But...you're going on a date with him?"

"I don't know. Shut up. It's none of your business."

"Fine. You're right." He sat back in his chair and tried to pretend he was uninterested. "Still, Genesis? I mean—"

"What? He's great."

"Sure, I mean...if you're into that whole..."

"Smart, handsome, athletic, tall, well read, poetic—"

"Yeah, that crap." He shrugged, and you laughed.

"Are you jealous?"

"Of Genesis? Only all my life." You laughed again, and he smiled, "Hey, there she is. See? I know you might think you want to be alone...but that's never really the answer. Take it from someone who knows."

You felt the small smile that had come to your lips drop as he said it, and you remembered how sad you were. You cursed and held a hand up to your head as your damn eyes began to fill with tears again.

"No...shit. Fuck." He mumbled to himself, as he moved from the chair to your bed and put an arm around you. "Hey, come on. Please don't cry. I shouldn't have said anything...I'm sorry."

"No, no it's alright...it's not your fault, it's me, " You clenched your jaw in frustration at yourself as more tears spilled, "I just can't stop fucking crying." You turned your face into his shoulder, willing yourself to stop, but it just didn't seem like it was possible.

"It's okay. I think you've earned the right to a few shitty days and some tears." He rested his chin on your head and ran his fingers through your hair soothingly as you cried into his sweater. You felt the headache you had since you woke up finally leave you, and the sting in your eyes died down significantly. The stabbing in your chest dulled, and you felt like you could breath easily again.

"You kinda sound like Roxas when you get worried." You remarked, thinking his reaction to your tears was very similar to Roxas'.

He just shushed you and squeezed you a little tighter as he tried to comfort you. After a while, you were able to relax as about as much as you were able to. You felt alright for the most part now, besides your undying, unrelenting chest pain.

"You know...you're really lucky you don't have to feel all this all the time." You had only been in contact with him for a few minutes at most, but already the white magic pouring out of him made everything feel like it was okay again.

"I guess I am. Being agonizingly numb all the time isn't all it's cracked out to be, but it's kind of hard to say that to someone who is actively suffering."

"Fucking ShinRa." You sighed. "Why did they make us like this? What do they want?"

"I don't know. They're just a bunch of selfish asshole who don't care who they hurt or who's lives they ruin. They just did it because they could."

"I just want to be normal. Why can't I just be normal?"

He laughed, "You were never gonna be normal. I could see that when I first met you."

"Thanks."

"No, that's not what I meant. Even if you weren't going to be  _this,_  you were still going to be something more than the rest of us."

"I don't feel like I'm more. I feel like I'm so much less. Especially now."

"You? No. Are you kidding me? You've got electricity in your veins. A literal spark in your eye. It was only a matter of time before you realized it. Now, yeah, you get some shitty parts too, but you'll be better than Aqua with magic, hell, you'll better than Lulu. Special jobs arise for people who are unusually gifted mages. You could be a teacher, a guardian, go to Pulse and show them what it really means to use magic...I wouldn't be surprised if one day you march right up to ShinRa's stupid fucking fat face and tell him, 'You made me this way. You stuck a scared kid with needles enough time that you created an all powerful bitch, now try and control me. I  _dare_  you.' And then you'll tear him and every one of them a new one, and I'll stand back and tell them 'Sorry, not enough white magic in the world to fix that.' Then we walk off into the sunset, tipping all their paintings slightly off center as we go."

You couldn't help but laughing, "That's our master plan?"

"It sure is."

You laughed again as you pulled away from him, feeling much better and like you could handle being without his magic again, "You're just saying all this to be nice to me."

"I am absolutely  saying it to be nice to you. You're sad, and I can't really do anything for you. Do you know what that's like for me? I'm a healer. Tears feel like acid on my skin. I'm supposed to be able to help pain, you know? But there's nothing I can do for you. I can't offer you any kind of comfort or consolidation other than saying I'm sorry, and you're not alone...but those are just words."

"That's alright. It helps. You know, you're a really nice guy."

He rubbed the back of his neck, "I'm alright." He looked over and noticed you had a tear still rolling down your face and reached forward to wipe it away with his thumb. You locked eyes and found yourself falling into the near-hypnotizing trap you always did when it came to the Rostar boy's big blue eyes. Sora, Roxas, and Ven all had eyes that could draw you in before you even knew what was happening. Ven's eyes were different from theirs though. They were darker. Sadder, almost. It was true he had a much more difficult life than his brothers, but you never really saw how it effected him until now.

His hand was still cupping your face, and his gaze dropped from your eyes to your lips. You felt like you froze in place, not sure what he was going to do next, when your phone suddenly went off in your hand. You jumped and answered it right away, happy for the distraction so you didn't have to think about what almost just happened.

"Hello?"

_"≈≈≈≈≈≈, thank god. I'm so, so, so sorry. I never should have—I didn't mean to—I'm just so sorry, could—"_

"Roxy?" He was talking so fast it was almost hard to tell who it was, "Hey...can we talk?"

_"Yes! Please, talk to me."_

"In person? Are you available?"

_"Yeah, of course. There's a tire swing in my backyard, can you meet me there?"_

"Yeah, that's fine. See you in a bit."

_"Okay...just...I'm sorry."_

"It's okay. I'll explain everything." You hung up and began to pull on your shoes while Ven sat staring at his hands on his knees.

"So...that was Roxas?"

"Yeah, I need to...well, would you like to come with me?"

"Wha—to meet Roxas? No thanks."

"No, come on. I was talking to him earlier...I think he'd really like a chance to talk to you."

Ven shot you a look, "He hates me."

"Your parents want him to hate you. He's not so sure he should."

Ven looked down at his hands again, like he was weighing his options, "I...I don't know."

"I wish you would just go see him. You've both got the wrong idea about each other."

"Alright...anything for you, kid." He sighed, then added, "You know, because you're having a rough time, so you get a free pass."

"Stop stalling. Let's go."

He swallowed hard and got to his feet, ready to follow you out of the room.

∞

You walked outside and made your way through your backyard, passed Riku's house, and into Roxas' yard. Luckily, there were no fences, so you just walked straight on over to where you saw Roxas sitting in the tire swing. As you got closer, he got to his feet nervously.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, I just wanted—you've been crying?" His face paled slightly at the sight of your red, glassy eyes.

"Don't worry, it's not your fault." You said, using your sleeve to dab at your eyes. They were pretty dry right now but they also felt very irritated, so you knew they were a dead giveaway. Roxas then looked behind you and saw Ven walking slowly with his hands in his pockets, pretending not to see him.

"What's he doing—" Roxas stopped short, seeing the wet stain on Ven's sweater just below his shoulder. Sure, there was a chance that maybe Ven just spilled something on himself, but somehow Roxas knew the stain was from your tears. "What's going on? Are you o—"

"I'm gonna be honest with you, I'm not okay, so please don't finish that question. I'm getting really sick of hearing it."

"But...I don't understand...up on the roof, I felt—"

"I know you did."

"Wait, you felt it?" Ven perked up, and finally stepped up beside you to properly join the conversation.

"Yeah, it turns out he's more your brother than you think." You shrugged and Ven took a second look at Roxas.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Roxas tried to get you to focus on the real conversation at hand.

"Look, I have something to tell you, but...please don't tell anyone else."

"You don't have to tell him, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." Ven mumbled to you, and Roxas glared at him, "It's just...you're still trying to get your head around it, you don't need to go telling people if you're not ready."

"It's okay. I don't mind if it's him. He's my best friend after all, I know he won't tell anyone."

"Alright, whatever you say." Ven shrugged, and you did your best to ignore him as you turned back to Roxas. You must have looked nervous, because he suddenly looked very anxious for what you were about to tell him.

"I have...I mean, I just found out that I have...geostigma..." The words felt wrong coming out of your mouth, but there it was. You had finally said it.

Roxas didn't say anything, and you had been looking at your feet when you said it, but when you finally looked up at him you saw he looked about as crushed as you felt. He reached for your hands with wide eyes.

"G-geo...I'm so sorry, how...how bad is it?" He asked in a small, shaken voice. Geostigma might have started out a Midgar problem, but it had become so widespread everyone knew what it was and what it did to people.

You looked back at Ven for help answering that question, but he just looked away as he ran a hand through his hair.

Taking both of your silences as a sign it was pretty bad, he pulled you into a tight hug. You had to admit, being able to tell someone for yourself felt almost as good as being hugged. You realized how alone you had been feeling, and how much you hated it despite thinking it's what you wanted when you first found out. You leaned your head against his chest and sighed, hugging him back. He wasn't able to heal you or anything, but it still felt nice to be warm and feel cared about. 

"You'll be okay. I know you will." He said, giving you a tight squeeze, "I mean, Ven...that must be why you're here, right?"

"I'm doing my best to keep her stable and as pain free as possible...but I can't cure her." He admitted.

"Does anyone else know?" Roxas asked you as he pulled back so he could look at you.

"Just my family. And Lulu and Aqua. Cloud might have told Tifa, but I don't know."

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, it was our backyard party tonight. All of Cloud's friends like to come, but no one bothered me tonight. I figure he must have told them to leave me alone, and he probably needed backup." 

"Oh yeah, that's probably true. Zack and Gippal on the couch with them when I walked in." Ven said.

"Really? Great. I should probably go talk to them, before they bother me about it all day tomorrow."

"You're gonna tell them?" Roxas asked.

"No...I don't trust Gippal to keep a secret, and I'm not ready for everyone to know...I'm just gonna go make sure Cloud didn't tell them anything suspicious." You really just wanted an excuse to get the brothers alone so they could talk to each other.

"Okay...I'll see you tomorrow then, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. And...I'm really sorry...about ealier. I'll never yell at you again, I swear. I'm so, so sorry. " Roxas said, looking at you sadly.

"Hey, I don't need you to worry about me Roxy. I know you didn't mean for any of what happened up there, there's nothing to forgive." You said, giving him another squeeze and kissing him on the cheek before deciding to head back inside your house.

"Hang on, I'll come with you." Ven started to come after you, but you stopped him.

"Ven. Talk to your brother."

"I...okay..." He sighed heavily, looking pained as he turned to face Roxas.

"You'll be fine." You gave him two good pats on the cheek before walking off. "Roxy...give him a chance." You said over your shoulder, causing Ven the blush deep red, and Roxas give you a pleading look to not make him do this.

"So...people call you Roxy?" Ven rubbed the back of his neck.

"Only ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ gets to call me that." Roxas said briskly.

"Oh. Cool." Ven stuck his hands in his pockets, already regretting the way this conversation was going. "So...you really are her best friend then, right?"

"I am. Why, is that weird to you?" Roxas crossed his arms.

"It's not, I just didn't know...It's good though." He kicked at the ground awkwardly, "She'll need good friends to get by. We can't really heal her, or do anything to make her feel better, so you'll be able almost as much help as I am."

"There's really nothing you can do?" Roxas said after a while, probably trying to feel through how weird it was to be talking to his older brother casually for the first time.

"No. Not without knowing more about the stigma, but there haven't been any breakthroughs on that front in years."

"So what are you doing for her exactly?"

"Helping manage the pain. The real trouble is getting her used to sleeping with the stigma."

"Yeah, I bet it's pretty hard to sleep with...whatever it is I felt in her raging."

"Can you feel what other people feel?"

"No, not usually. But then I've never really tried before, and I guess ≈≈≈≈≈ is different. I put a hand on her and just...pain. And electricity. And anger."

"Yeah, she's in a...tricky spot." Ven scratched his cheek, thinking that wasn't even close to half of it.

"Could you teach me how to help her? I mean...if I have any abilities in White Magic at all, that is. I just...I wanna help, if I can." Roxas looked at his feet as he asked.

"You...want  _me_  to teach you?" Ven had a hard time keeping the blatant shock off his face.

"Well, yeah. I mean...there's no one better, right?"

"I...I guess...I could probably teach you some stuff."

That was the last of their conversation that you could hear before you reached your back porch and had to go inside. You knew they just needed a chance to talk. You wished it hadn't been about you, but if that's what it took to get them speaking again, you'd just have to put up with it. Now you just needed Ven to try talking with Sora, but that was going to be much easier. You thought back to your conversation with Riku the other night, and supposed that he was probably right; Sora had a huge heart and was quick to forgive. You wouldn't be surprised to see the three brothers getting along without you having to force them soon.

"Hey, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. Are you feeling better?" Tifa called to you, and you realized you arrived in the living room already. Tifa sat up from where she had been laying on the couch at the sight of you, and the heads of the boys—Cloud, Zack, and Gippal—turned to look at you.

You shot a quick look at Cloud and he shrugged, "I told them about your stomachache."

"Oh, yeah, don't worry about it." You said as you took your usual seat between Zack and Gippal on the L shaped couch. Cloud and Tifa were on the sectional off to the side snuggled up together, where they usually were as well. "What are we watching?" You asked as you grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped yourself up in it comfortably before putting your legs in Gippal's lap and rested your head against Zack's arm. You had long since decided this was the most comfortable couch arrangement, and you were in desperate need of some comfort.

"Animal Planet." Gippal replied, his eyes glued to the screen as it showed a Shoopuff swimming across a moonlit lake. He barely even noticed you had made a footrest out of him he was so enraptured.

"They're doing a special on Spira." Cloud explained and you nodded, remembering both that Gippal was from Spira and that you would soon be going there for the school trip.

"Speaking of, they're supposed to be releasing the list of leaders later this month." Zack said happily.

"So?" Cloud eyed him.

"So...It'll be you, Tifa, and Yuffie, and me, Gippal and ≈≈≈≈≈≈! Just like it should be."

"That's not the plan anymore." Cloud said, sounding a bit more serious than you would have expected, considering this was a conversation they had about ten times a week.

"Oh come on, we—"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈ is with us now. You can take Yuffie." Cloud said, and Gippal scoffed.

"No way."

"Yeah." Zack nodded in agreed disagreement.

"Would you two behave?" Tifa rolled her eyes.

"No, not while Cloud's trying to steal our teammate." Gippal huffed.

"I am not stealing your teammate; you're trying to steal my sister."

You decided that Cloud's sudden interest in keeping you with him and your recent diagnosis probably weren't a coincidence.

"Look guys, we don't have to make any decisions for a few weeks. Let's just see what happens." You finally spoke up for yourself. You were too tried for them to be fighting, especially over you. You felt like you wanted to be alone again, but then you remembered how you tended to go to dark places when you were left by yourself. You sighed and snuggled into the couch a little more, hoping that you had settled the argument and everyone would be quiet now so you could try and sleep.

Everyone did fall silent, though you knew not everyone's attention went back to the TV. Zack and Cloud were both watching you, though you pretended not to see them long enough that eventually they let it go, and you were able to fall asleep peacefully against Zack's arm.

You began having strange dreams again, and jolted awake to see a darkened room where most everyone else was asleep. The TV was still going, casting a soft light around the room so you could see everyone. Gippal flopped over onto you and was laying with his head on your hip, your legs still over his lap, and Cloud was passed out with Tifa against his chest, though her eyes were still open and lazily watching the TV. Ven was now in the room, sitting on the other side of Zack with his head back snoring lightly. You laughed a little to yourself, seeing that he had slumped over and was half laying on Zack's shoulder, same as you.

"You alright?" Zack asked quietly and you jumped a little, having not realized he was awake. "Did you have a bad dream? You were flopping around a little there."

"No, I just wiggle a lot." You brushed it off, trying to get your head in a comfy position again as you pulled the blanket up over your chilly arms, but it was trapped under Gippal. Zack moved his arm so it was around your shoulder and you instantly felt warmer. It was basically like laying against a radiator. "Why aren't you sleeping?" You asked him as you got settled in.

"My everything went asleep, like forty minutes ago." He shrugged, causing Ven's head to fall off his shoulder. Ven sleepily grumbled something before grabbing a pillow, holding it to his face, then plummeting into Zack's lap in retaliation.

"Aw, I'm sorry. Should I get up?"

"No it's fine. It's mostly Ven's dead weight anyway." Zack flicked him on the ear, and Ven shot an elbow into Zack's ribs. "So...do you...really wanna go on the trip with Cloud?"

"Oh, I don't know. It'll be fun and everyone will be around anyway, why does it matter whose specific group we're in?"

"It doesn't really. I guess we just kinda fell in love with the idea of our little dream team."

"So...how does the grouping work anyway. I know they are going to teach us survival and combat skills in the months to come, but what is the breakdown?"

"Well, okay. So after we pick our groups, we all start getting general training during gym, but then two weeks before we take off for the trip, we all get split up into three camps. One group member goes for combat specific training, one goes for White Magic training, and the last one goes for Black Magic training."

"So, I'd go to black magic training. Where would you and Gippal go?"

"Oh, we always fight it out in a paintball war. All the other groups who are in the similar predicament of who gets the awesome job and who gets the dumb job join in. It's really fun, actually."

"Could I still play, even if I know where I'm going already?"

"Of course...well, if you're on my team I'd let you, anyway. Cloud might not." He said in a tone that made it very obvious he was trying to sway you over to his side.

"Well in that case, it's settled." You laughed.

"Shake on it?" He grinned at you, and you felt the smile begin to fall from your face.

"...I don't know...I mean, are either of you any good at White Magic?"

"Well...no, not really. But we make up for it by being half decent fighters, if that's what you're worried about."

You looked into his hopeful eyes and didn't quite know how to tell him you didn't know if you could be his partner without them knowing good enough White Magic. You wondered if you would be allowed to pair up with Ven, even though you weren't sure he was technically a student. Someone probably had to be on standby in case anyone got seriously hurt, and that someone was probably him.

Before you had to break anything to Zack, thankfully, Basch walked into the room and threw on the lights. Everyone groaned and covered their eyes as they sat up, but he didn't seem to care, "Alright kids, time for bed. I'm starting to get calls from parents. It's time to go home." He said, taking the TV remote and turning it off.

Everyone begrudgingly got to their feet, and Zack and Gippal complained all the way out the door about the rude awakening, and Tifa followed them out telling them to quit their bitching. You made for your room with Ven while Cloud went to the kitchen from something to drink.

"Don't you have to get up for school tomorrow to? Or, I guess it's work for you, but still." You asked him as you got up to your room and began to get ready from bed in the bathroom while he flopped onto your bed.

"I do, but I'll be fine. Just give me a place to put my head and I'm out like a light."

"Hmm...don't you feel kind of creepy watching me sleep all the time?" You asked, toothbrush in mouth as you shot him some side eye out of the bathroom mirror which he didn't see.

"Oh, hell yeah I do. But it's not like I'm staring at you, counting freckles or anything. I'm mostly just sitting in that chair daydreaming, and I only give you any of my attention when you get all twitchy like."

"Do I really get twitchy? Zack said the same thing."

"Well, yeah. A little bit. It's not like you start convulsing, you just kinda...I dunno, your fingers start twitching, and sometimes you wiggle. I assume its from the dreams, but sometimes you jolt. I bet that's from the pain though...you're not a very sound sleeper, at any rate."

"Do you think...well, if I were to go on the class trip with someone who couldn't really use magic...would they know? Would they be able to figure out something wasn't right just based on how I sleep?"

"Are we talking Fair and Gippal here?" He laughed, "Oh yeah. You'd be up shit creek without a paddle. Not that I think either of them would be able to figure it out, but they'd never be able to help you to the extent you're going to need help. Not unless we're able to work miracles at the training camp. They don't really take white magic training very seriously, though."

"Are you up for grabs as a partner?"

He sat up with a smirk on his face, "You'd want me as your partner? That's flattering."

"Flatter yourself on your own time." You rolled your eyes.

"Kind as you are, no, I'm not 'up for grabs.' Sorry, but someone's gotta make sure none of you kiddies goes getting themselves killed out there. No...I get to stay at base...the  _whole_ goddamn time." He sighed.

When you finished getting ready for bed you returned to your room and scooted him off your bed so you could get all tucked in. You were about to have him knock you out when Basch knocked on the open door frame to alert you to his presence.

"How are you doing, muffin?" He asked, only calling you that because your mother always did.

"Better." You replied simply, thinking it was technically true. You were still doing poorly and coping with it even more poorly, but you did feel better that last night so...

"Good. That's good...I know this is hard for you. That it's even harder because you feel betrayed." He walked over to your bedside with a mug of something, and he sat down in the chair by your bedside next to Ven before handing it to you, "My famous Dalmascan Tea...though, it's not really tea. "Could we have a moment?"

"Yeah, of course...I mean, it's your house." Ven said, running a hand through his hair like he always did when he felt unsure what else to do, before getting to his feet and shuffling on out of the room. Meanwhile you inspected the liquid in the mug and came to the conclusion it was just warm milk, but it smelled much sweeter, and like it had a good bit of vanilla in it.

"I don't like anyone to go to sleep angry or hurting. Least of all you kids." He explained as you took a sip. It was exactly like warm milk with vanilla and sugar in it.

You smiled a little, "It's good."

He gave a light smile in return, "I'll be honest, it's not really a Dalmascan thing. It's just what a man with no culinary skills came up with to use on Cloud when he was young and couldn't sleep. Since then, it's kind of become a tradition for us."

"Thank you. It's a nice thought."

"It's a nice thought, but it really doesn't change anything. What happened still happened, and I know it still hurts. But you have to know your mother loves you very much. It might seem contradictory to you now, but I know she wouldn't have gone to such lengths to keep this from you if she didn't love you to pieces."

"You have to understand, I know she loves me and of course I still love her...but I am having a really hard time trying to forgive her. Every ache, throb, bad dream, uncontrollable burst of magic...it all just rubs it in a little deeper. I know she didn't mean for any of this to happen, but it just feels like she might have thought to mention it. It's not like I would have gone around telling ShinRa agents they missed one. Life changing information shouldn't be buried like that."

"She didn't want to hurt you. You've already been through so much...a parent never wants to see their child suffer. I can see why she would wish to spare you the truth of the horrors in your past if it was at all possible." He put a warm, reassuring hand on your shoulder, and you brought your knees into your chest and took a sip of 'tea' bitterly. 

"She shouldn't have hidden it from me. Anything would have been better than finding out after it was already too late. I would have been prepared to handle it. Having her tell me the truth might have hurt, but it wouldn't have shattered my world. I'm not made of glass; I don't need anyone to tiptoe around the truth for my sake."

"I know you're not. When I look in your eyes I don't see glass, I see steel. You're made of stronger stuff than most, I'm certain of that. But you are still so young, and you're the only child she has left. She will always want to protect you, regardless of anything you could possibly do to try and stop her or convince her you don't need her protection. She's your mother, it's her job."

You didn't answer him, and instead took another drink from the warm mug. He was certainly a good talker, and his tone was surprisingly comforting, but you also knew he was an Ambassador. Being able to spin things and talk people down was part of the job description. You didn't like being suspicious he was just trying to play you into forgiving your mother more quickly, but at the same time you weren't exactly feeling too trusting right now.

"It's no wonder you get along with Cloud. You both get that same look when I'm talking to you." He laughed lightly at your glum frown and knitted brow.

"I'm sorry. What you're saying makes sense, I just...don't want to talk to her right now. I'm not ready." You shrugged.

"Alright, I understand." He stood up and gave you a soft smile and gently squeezed your shoulder. "Hold your chin up high, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. You might think this is a terrible fate that's been thrust upon you and that you're doomed to darkness because of it, but you are light. If you only knew. Before I even met you, I knew from the way your mother talks about you. She told me she thought you were a better version of the best she and your father had to offer for you since the day you were born. She believes that with her whole heart. Sometimes, I catch this look on your face and I see exactly what she means. Don't lose that to the pain and the anger."

You clenched a hand over your heart as pain shot through your chest, but you did your best to ignore it as well as the sting that had returned to your eyes. Somehow, people reminding you that they cared made it so much harder not to cry. "I'll try."

"That's all I ask. Get some rest." He ruffled your hair then sighed, "Rostar, are you out there listening?"

"Yup. Yes I am...uh, Sir." Ven replied quickly, poking his head in the door.

"Cloud tells me you're teaching him some healing magic to help her sleep?"

"I am."

"And he's not ready to actually be of any real help to her?"

"He's not."

"Then you are going to be staying here watching over her, right?"

"Well, that was Lulu's plan, but..."

"Then let me pay you."

"Oh, that's not...I mean..."

"I insist. It will make this feel more like a job, and less like a teenage boy in my daughter's room at night."

Ven flushed bright red. "O...kay." You did your best not to laugh.

"Good. I don't trust you as far as I can throw you..." Basch began, and Ven got even redder if that was even possible, "But, you're a scrawny kid. I could probably throw you at least a few feet, so I guess I have to trust you at least a little. We have a nice padded sleeping bag, or an air mattress. Which would you prefer?"

"I'm okay here in the chair." Ven shrugged, but Basch shook his head.

"I know Lulu has tasked you with helping her, but you also need to look after yourself. You have to get up and go to school tomorrow as well, don't you?"

He nodded.

"Then it's settled. I'll get you something to sleep on tonight, and we'll discuss payment in the morning." He made to leave, then stopped short and turned back, "You...live on your own, right? I'll make sure you have no trouble with rent this month. How does that sound?"

Ven half laughed, not sure if he was joking or not until he saw the dead serious look on his face, "That would be...great. More than great, I couldn't...I...wow. Thank you."

"Of course. I'll just bring that sleeping bag in then." He said before actually leaving this time.

When Basch was gone Ven turned to look at you with a mind blown expression. "That man...is terrifying."

"No he's not." You rolled your eyes, taking the last few sips left in the mug before setting it on the nightstand.

"Speak for yourself...you know how everyone is kind of terrified of Cloud? I think I just learned where he gets it."

Before you could reply, Basch came back into the room with a sleeping bag slung over his shoulder and he set it down on the rug in the middle of your room before turning to look at Ven. You and Ven exchanged a look. You had been hoping to talk with him some more before going to bed, but it seemed like Basch thought it was bed time and wasn't going to leave until you were asleep.

"Goodnight, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." Basch said to you with a small smile before returning his hardened gaze to Ven.

"Night..." You said, settling down into bed and making sure your head was in a comfy position before holding a hand out for Ven.

"Nighty night." He mumbled as he took your hand, his movements rather awkward under Basch's gaze. All the same, shortly after your hands connected, your eyes fell heavy and you lost complete control over your ability to stay conscious. It was a little sad, because you would have loved to keep watching Ven squirm under Basch's thumb.  

**∞**

**Okay, so we've taken a big turn from the original story. Any thoughts? It doesn't really change anything in any major ways, but it still kind presents ≈≈≈≈≈≈ as a little more messed up from the get go (and maybe excuses the fact that we have about 130 chapters of love with no commitment, because hey–maybe it's not commitment issues, maybe ≈≈≈≈≈ just has a little more shit going on than everyone thinks). This was obviously never a story about sunshine and rainbows, but I get the feeling the dark times might be a whole lot darker this go around...but there's still plenty of light, fluffy times too, don't you worry.**

**Anyway, what are your thoughts on things happening so early? This was a pretty restrictive chapter since it was mostly the same characters and same location throughout, but at the same time this chapter is kind of a game changer for the 'simple school life' plot. I'm trying to speed some things up, but they are also going to go a lot slower at the same time...I don't know, we may just have to wait and see if I'm actually successful with the timing of things. xD**

**For your chocobuck hunting pleasure:**

**I've only got one thing for you, and it's gonna be worth $5 chocobucks:**

**•Why were Ven's eyes green? (Hint: blue + ???? = green)** **  
**

**•A** **lso, I haven't had an editor look over this, so if you can point out any errors to me, I'll give you $1 buck.**

**(remember, in order to claim your bucks, you also have to make a comment about the story; you can't just drop an answer, pick up your buck, and run...and please make it a little more in depth than 'nice story! now gimme my money')**

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

**Sorry this took so long! And sorry that is so long. Just, apologies all around. What can I say? This chapter got away form me a little bit. It was gonna be longer, but I cut myself off. Consider yourselves lucky.**

**Chocobuck questions will be at the end, so don't bother hunting for anything within the chapter. Though I would like to ask for you to point out any spelling/grammar mistakes you see while reading in exchange for a buck per error, since I've only looked over this once or twice and just really want to get it published at this point.**

**Basically...please be my editors. ∠( ᐛ 」∠)＿**

**∞**

**Chapter title: Shut up, (Insert favorite Rostar brother here).**

**I don't know. That line is just used a lot in this chapter for some reason.**

**∞** **  
**

Cloud came in to wake you up early the next morning with a plate of toast and sat on your bed as you lazily sat up and rubbed the sleep from your eyes.

"So, how are you doing? You up to going to school?" He asked, handing over the plate to you.

You laughed, "You mean you think I could get out of school with this?"

"If you wanted to, I think you could get out of just about anything." He shrugged.

"You're probably right, but nah. I'm alright today."

"Good. You look a lot better."

"...Thanks..."

"You know what I meant." He got up and ruffled your hair, "See you downstairs, champ." Then he stepped over Ven and made for the door.

"Ven?" You called out as you began working on a slice of toast. "Ven." You tried throwing a pillow at him, but he didn't stir even as it bounced off his face. You rolled your eyes and got up to get ready, thinking as long as he was out like a light you could at least get dressed in peace. You changed in the bathroom and decided in a moment of boldness to put on a full face of makeup—winged eyeliner, mascara, a slightly shimmery eye shadow—just to incentivize yourself not to cry today, not while you were at school.

You walked back out into your room and nudged Ven with your foot as you put your shoes on. "Get up, you're gonna be late." You said before hopping over to the bed to fully get your shoes on and tie them up.

He grumbled a little and eventually sat up, looking around in a daze. "What? What's going on?" He mumbled, looking around like he didn't understand where he was. You weren't going to say anything and risk him freaking out again, but his eyes were green.

"School?" You shrugged and he looked at his phone for the clock.

"Oh...oh." He looked over and saw you in the school uniform. "I guess we do have to do that today, huh?" He yawned, laying back down and folding an arm behind his head. He lazily reached over for your ankle to do the worlds laziest med-check, then after deciding you were okay he pulled the black tights away from your skin before letting it snap back, "So happy I don't have to wear a uniform." He snickered, and you slapped his hand away before standing up.

"Lucky you." You said, fiddling with your tie, "I can never get this stupid thing."

"Want help?" He sat up again, but you were half way to the window.

"I usually have Riku fix it for me. You need to get ready." You said, shooting him a look as he struggled to get out of the warm sleeping bag.

"Yeah, yeah, okay. I'm getting up. You look—" He sat up again only to realize that you had left the room, "...nice today..." He sighed and then got to his feet to find his backpack.

You crossed the tree over to Riku's room, where he had left his window open in anticipation for your usual morning visit. His bed was positioned directly under the window, so you plopped down lazily onto it as soon as you were inside.

"Morning." He said without bothering to look back at you. He was at the desk typing up a paper on his laptop with two mugs of coffee sitting beside him. He absently handed back one of the mugs and you happily took it.

"Good morning." You replied, taking a sip. He even put in cream and sugar the way you liked it.

"Where were you yesterday? I was looking for you." He asked, hitting some buttons on the laptop triumphantly, and the printer under the desk suddenly came to life.

"Apparently not looking very hard. I was in my room most of the day." You shrugged, blowing on the hot coffee as you rolled the mug between your hands.

"Huh...I guess I did skip the most obvious place. But still, you weren't at Basch's backyard dinner."

"Yeah, I wasn't very hungry. Did you need something?" You asked, watching as he put his paper in a folder and put it in his backpack before finally spinning around in his desk chair to face you.

"Not really. I just got bored and thought—"

"My shining face would brighten your boring life?" You gave him a toothy grin and he scoffed.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking." He said, sarcasm dripping from his tone.

"What's the paper for?" You ignored him completely.

"English."

"Oh that's right. You're too cool for poetry." You said, remembering that he wasn't in your English class.

"No, I just took it last year. Kairi's idea. It was our date class." He rolled his eyes at how stupid that was, and you laughed.

"Aw, you're cute." You teased him, and he glared at you.

"Shut up."

"You're a cute boyfriend. I bet you carried her books to class, saved her a seat at lunch, walked her home—"

"Shut. Up." He glared at you, his cheeks going pink.

"Brought her soup when she was sick—"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, I've got no problems with punching you out."

"Only because I'm right. You big softie." You smirked at him as he hit you on the knee with his math homework folder before packing it up in his backpack.

"Well...I never brought her soup."

"What? You skip that good boyfriend lesson or something?"

"No, she just never really got sick." He shrugged.

"So...how did your conversation with her go, anyway?"   
"Not great. I mean, better than the kinds of conversations we had been having—"

"If by conversation you mean storming off on sight—"

"Exactly. I stayed in the room the whole time."

"Good! It's a start." You smiled encouragingly.

"Yeah, I even listened to what she was saying instead of just screaming 'die bitch' over and over in my head when she talks."

"Oh. Maybe you're not so cute after all." You remarked, thinking he had a temper worse than your own. You'd hate to be on the burnt bearing side of it.

"Hey, don't lie to me and don't try to manipulate me, and I'll be as cute as you want me to be. But there are some things I just don't put up with." He shrugged, taking a sip of his own mug of coffee.

"I guess I wasn't expecting you guys to be best friends again right away, but...do you think you'll ever be ready to be her friend again?"

He sighed, "I dunno. It's a little dramatic to go saying never, but I really don't see it happening."

"Well, as long as you don't actually say 'die bitch, die' to her face, I think we'll be okay."

"I'll try my bestest not to." He shot you a dry look. Even when he was at his peak of hating her guts, he still had more tact than to go around saying things like that publicly or to her, and you both knew it. He then noticed your mess of a tie and rolled his chair closer to the bed where you were sitting after setting his mug down.

He struggled to untie the knot you had put in the fabric, and made a very determined face as he tried to fix it. You just took a sip of your coffee with a smile.

"What?" He eyed you suspiciously as you continued to grin to yourself while he began to neatly fold the fabric over itself as he tied it properly.

"You're a cutie." You said again in a mocking tone, causing him to glare at you and suddenly pull the tie just a little too tight around your neck after he finally got it to lie flat. You quickly loosened it up again, laughing at his grumpy expression.

"Remind me why I help you again?" He scoffed as he rolled his chair away from you and back to his desk, turning away so you couldn't see how pink his cheeks had become from your teases.

"Because you love me?"

"I would sell you to Satan for one corn chip."

"Such a sweetie." You said as you finished your coffee then set the mug down next to his. "Are you blushing?" You asked after noticing he kept trying to keep his face turned away from you.

"See you in school, asshole." He ignored your question, returning to his laptop to finish some other assignment he'd put off. You gave him a quick kiss on the cheek from behind, causing him to stiffen and turned around in the chair to swat you away from him.

"You are blushing!" You laughed as he furiously wiped at the sticky spot your lip gloss had left on him.

"You sure about that? Because this kinda feels like pure rage, not embarrassment." He glared at you, only making you smile more.

"See you in school, Riku." You shook your head as you turned to leave, but he got up and caught you by the shoulder with a hand before you could step up onto his bed to make your exit. He stepped up so he was directly behind you, and you could feel his breath on the side of your neck as he ran a hand through your hair to specifically move it away from your skin. It sent shivers down your spine and took everything you had not to elbow him in the stomach to get him to step back.

"Go out with me." He said, right in your ear.

"What? Riku, get away from me." You rolled your eyes, shoving him back a step.

"I'm serious, you heard me. If you think I'd be such a cute boyfriend, go out with me. See for yourself."

"You're not that cute." You eyed him, knowing he was just saying this to try and get back at you for making him blush by trying to making you do the same.

"Oh, so only Zack gets to ask you out, is that it?"

"You sound jealous." You shot back, and you could have sworn his lip twitched just the slightest bit as his plan began to backfire and he got even redder in the face.

"Me? Jealous? You've got to be kidding me." He was so naturally pale even the slightest touch of red stood out, and boy was it standing out right now. You both knew it, too. You smirked, knowing you had won as he blew his hair out of his eyes and let go of you. "Get out of here, Midgar. Take that smirk with you."

"Ha, 'go out with me.' You're such an ass." You laughed as you made for the window.

"Oh please. Like anyone would ever want to put up with you for an extended period of time." He shot back as he sat back down at his desk.

"I'll see you in homeroom." You said before closing the window after yourself as you got back on the tree and returned to your room, feeling your own cheeks heat up now that he couldn't see you. You really thought he was asking you out for a second there. His tone was so serious when he said it. But it was just a silly joke of his. Of course Riku didn't want to go out with you.

Riku, meanwhile, watched you until you were out of eye shot then slumped forward onto his desk, hitting his head against the wood a few times while cursing at himself for half feeling upset that you basically laughed in his face after he asked you out. Sure, he was mostly just joking around, but it was still a pretty harsh reaction.

You got back to your room and saw it was empty now, and figured Ven had gotten dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. You grabbed your backpack and headed down yourself, only to run into Axel in the hallway, clearly headed for your room since Cloud's was on the other side of the hall.

"Morning, beautiful." He grinned.

"Axel?" You were genuinely surprised to see him. He didn't normally come over in the morning, preferring to sleep in as late as humanly possible, "What are you doing here?"

"Just looking for your sun-shiny face." He shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets and continuing to smirk at you.

"You wanted my math homework, didn't you?" You crossed your arms, seeing right through him. He put on an offended face.

"I would never—"

"Uh-huh. Save it."

"Really, I was just...looking for a hair tie." He said.

You shot him a look, "And Tifa and Yuffie don't have any?"

"They're busy, I didn't want to bother them."

"And Reno? You love bothering Reno."

He looked like he was trying really hard to come up with something slick to say, "Maybe I wanted one of yours." He leaned against the wall and gave you a flirty look.

You shot him a dry look and held out your arm, where a hair tie was sitting pretty around your wrist.

"See? This is why I came to you. Service with a smile." He smirked as he took it off your wrist, then he pulled his fiery red hair back into a low bun. "So..."

"I didn't do my homework, Ax." You shook your head at him.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, you have to turn your homework in. You're better than this." He scolded you, reaching for your tie and straighten it out like he was trying to help you look like the model student he was pretending you were.

"I was gonna do it with Naminé during health."

"Oh. Well, do you wanna throw mine in there with yours? You know, if you have time."

You laughed sarcastically, "Because that sounds super fun."

"You never know until you try." He shrugged.

"Tell you what, you know where my locker is. Why don't you come join us, and we'll do it over break instead?"

"Are you asking me out?" He took a step closer to you.

"Why is that on everyone's mind today?" You rolled your eyes.

"What?" He laughed, "It's like 7:30, don't tell me Zack got to you already."

"Don't worry about it. You want this homework done or not?"

"Not badly enough to do it myself."

"Hmm...well, find yourself another doormat to walk all over. I'm not interested."

"Doormat? ≈≈≈≈≈≈, you've got me all wrong." He threw an arm around your shoulder and began leading you down the hall towards the stairs now that he had nothing to gain from going to your room. "I don't want to use you. We're friends, or I want us to be. Mutually beneficial relationship, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. What can I do for you?"

"For starters you can stop sneaking up to my room to steal my homework."

"Fair enough." He laughed.

"So, you woke up extra early just to come over here and steal my math work? That doesn't sound like you."

"I go to great lengths to avoid doing work."

"I'm beginning to see that."

"Well, normally I'm better at buttering people up, but you've got quite the bullshit detector there." He gave your nose a playful tap, and you stopped walking.

"What do you want?"

"What?"   
"Come on, what do you want?" You said again, turning to face him so his arm fell off your shoulder. "You're still buttering, so you must want something else."

"Can't a guy just come and say hello, good morning, thanks for the hair tie?"

"Sure, a guy could. But not you. Now what is it?"

"I get the feeling you don't trust me very much." He put his hands on his hips and smirked a little as he leaned in on you.

"No, I just don't know you very well, and you always seem to want something from me." You poked him in the chest to push him out of your face.

"Okay." He gave you a look like he was sizing you up, trying to decide if you could take what he had to say, "Okay, you got me. I do want something from you. What if I were to tell you that during our little game at the sleepover you were supposed to be matched with—"

"What are you two doing?" Cloud asked, walking past the two of you down the stairs, "And why are you here?" He shot Axel a second look over his shoulder.

"Really feeling the love here." Axel scoffed, hiding his slight irritation at being interrupted by making a joke.

"Sorry, I just don't think I've ever seen you before the late bell at school in all 8 years I've known you." Cloud smirked.

"Some things are worth waking up for." He shrugged, shooting you a look. Cloud saw this look and stopped in his tracks and turned to look between the two of you for a second before glaring daggers at Axel.

"You wanna repeat that?" Cloud asked, though it really didn't sound like a question. Axel blinked, taken aback by his sudden intensity, then opened his mouth to say something before thinking better of it and closing it again.

"Relax, Cloud. He wanted to steal my math homework, not my virginity." You rolled your eyes, and both boys gasped and stared at you with mouths hanging open.

"Jesus Christ, ≈≈≈≈≈≈, don't say things like that." Cloud snapped at you, and you crossed your arms.

"Well, if you're going to pretend that every guy who talks to me is after something, let's not beat around the bush."

"Just...go get your lunch money from Tifa." Cloud mumbled, a faint blush dusting his cheeks as he stepped aside to let you walk passed him. It also let him face Axel as you left, allowing him to resume glaring at him. "Were you really just after her homework?"

"Yes! God. Only the homework. Not the other thing." He flushed, shifting uncomfortably on the stairs under Cloud's gaze.

"Hey, what's that smell?" Cloud asked, and Axel shrugged.

"I don't smell anything."

"Oh, it's just your bullshit. You must not smell it because you're so used to it." Cloud crossed his arms and Axel's face began to go as red as his hair.

"I have to...bye." He didn't even bother trying to come up with something clever. The Strifes were apparently more than he could handle this early in the morning. He pushed passed Cloud and made straight for the front door, not willing to chance looking back for fear Cloud was still watching—and glaring—at him.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, you found Tifa putting jam on some toast for herself while talking with Zack, who was sitting on the island with his back to you. You grinned as you snuck up behind him and put your hands over his eyes. He had been mid-sentence when you did so, and a wide smile broke out on his face.

"Now who could that be?" He wondered aloud, lifting a hand up to touch the back of yours where it rested over his eyes. He then felt around for your wrist and wrapped his fingers around it, "Didn't realize you had such dainty little wrists, Cloud."

"Ha-ha." You made to pull your hands away, but he stopped you by holding them in his as he turned around to face you with a beaming smile still plastered to his face.

"Morning." He looked down at your entwined hands and getting a dreamy look on his face.

"How'd you know it was her?" Tifa asked, taking a bite of toast casually while watching him grin at your hands like a puppy in love.

"Yuffie's not that quiet, you're standing over there, and there's no one else in this house with wrists that small." He shrugged, a proud look on his face.

"Or maybe your little heart just got to fluttering when she touched you." She smirked.

"Yeah, could be that. Or it could be that she's literally made of electricity and it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck whenever she's near you. But yeah, let's go with your thing." He shot her a sarcastic smile, which she returned in full before rolling her eyes and taking another bite of toast.

"Good morning, Zack." You ignored their whole exchange and tried to pull your hands away from his, but he didn't let go. He pulled your hands up to his mouth and tried to plant a sweet kiss on your knuckle, but you gave him a lazy 'done with your shit' glare and shocked his lips as they made contact with your skin.

"You just love making this difficult for me, don't you?" He returned your playful glare, while Tifa laughed her ass off. You just smirked as you took off your backpack and set it down on a nearby stool.

"It's never been this hard for you has it?" She loved seeing him try and fail again and again with you. "The old Fair charm seems a little rusty."

"The Fair charm is  _not_  rusty. ≈≈≈≈≈≈'s just not a morning person." He shrugged.

"Well, you've gotta admire someone who can bounce back so quickly after being so thoroughly shut down." Tifa smiled to herself as she continued to work on her toast while pulling out her phone to check something or another.

"I wouldn't have to shut you down if you'd just stop playing this game, Zack." You gave him a look, but he just continued to smile pleasantly at you.

"Never." He flashed you his pearly whites and then winked when your cheeks flared up slightly at his words. With that endearing smile and his complete confidence in himself, you could really see how people fell for the Fair charm...but you were a little too complicated to be considering entering any kind of romantic relationship, as your body reminded you when a shooting pain ripped through your chest just to make sure you didn't forget you were dying.

You froze in place, holding your breath as you tried not to show any kind of outward reaction to what felt like a dagger plunging through your heart. You had to grip the edge of the counter to try and get some semblance of control over yourself as the pain radiated outwards from your heart through to your arms and legs as the poisonous blood began to spread.

"How are you feeling today, anyway?" Zack asked, returning to a comfortable sitting position on the counter. He noticed your eyebrows knit together and your expression turned a little sad, but you had done a pretty good job of hiding your reaction to the stigma. You didn't even need to fake a sneeze.

"I'm alright." You shrugged as soon as the majority of the pain had passed, throwing on a casual face as you walked over to Tifa, holding your hand out for her to give you your lunch money.

"No more tummy ache?" She asked as she put down her toast and pulled out Cloud's wallet from the pocket of her sweater.

"My stomach is fine." You said, happy you didn't have to lie. Your stomach felt fine. It was pretty much everything else besides it that hurt, "Why do you have that?" You asked after she dropped the money in your hand then put his wallet back in her pocket.

"Because Cloud can't be trusted around the school vending machines." She said in a pretty nonchalant tone considering how strange that sentence was.

"What?" You laughed, thinking this might lead to a good story that would distract you from the stigma, "Why?"

"Don't ask." She sighed.

"Cloud has a weird thing for those cheesy popcorn bags. Don't open that can of worms if you can avoid it." Zack explained, also sounding just a little bit too casual for your liking. But then, that was nothing new in this town. Everyone had something weird going on that they pretended was completely normal.

"To be fair, that stuff is delicious." Ven said as he walked into the room, cleaning the lenses of his glasses on his tie before putting them in his pocket. You were pretty sure his vision was terrible by the way he always squinted at you, but he only ever wore his glasses when he was working.

"What are you doing here?" Zack eyed him suspicious as he walked over and hopped up onto the counter beside him.

"You caught me. I have a massive crush on Tifa, and thought I'd swing by to get a little early morning stalking in before school." He said with a shrug as he poured himself a cup of coffee and took a sip, "Oh my god, is this Ebony Coffee? Man, it pays to be in the Strife household."

"Ven..." Tifa began, and he shot her a look from behind the rim of his mug.

"That was a joke." He drawled dryly.

"Better have been." Cloud said as he walked in, absently shoving a folder into his backpack.

"This is why I don't hang out with you people before school. You guys are way too serious in the morning." Ven mumbled.

"That's what I've been saying for years!" Zack slapped him on the back excitedly, causing him to choke and cough on the gulp of coffee he had just taken.

"Why are you here, though really?" Tifa asked, giving him a slightly suspicious look, thinking he'd never come over here until now, and the only thing that had changed about the house was that now you were living in it.

"Just making sure Strife is feeling well enough for school." He said as he tried to wipe up the few drops of coffee Zack made him spill on the counter with his sleeve.

"I'm fine." Cloud said automatically.

"Strife junior." Ven corrected without missing a beat.

"Oh..." Cloud mumbled, scratching his cheek sheepishly, completely forgetting that he wasn't the only young Strife in town anymore. Ven held out a hand for you, which you sighed before taking.

"No tummy aches on my watch." He sighed, a greenish white light emitting from his fingertips as he held your hand.

Zack found himself staring slightly at your hands as Ven ran his thumb over the back of your palm absently. For some reason, even though no one else was paying any attention in the slightest as Tifa finished up her toast, you were busy yawning, and Cloud was busy getting his backpack ready, Zack couldn't help but keeping his eyes glued to your hands. "Are you a Strife, ≈≈≈≈≈? Technically speaking?" Zack asked suddenly out of the blue, like he couldn't handle the silence that fell over the group any longer.

"I guess not technically. I mean, our parents aren't married yet, and no legal paperwork has changed our names yet. But if I never get called Ballad again in my whole life, it'll be too soon." You said, playing with the ends of your hair casually.

"Ballad, huh? ≈≈≈≈≈≈ Ballad. That's a pretty name. Got a nice ring to it." He continued to ramble.

"What did I just say?" You glared at him lightly, thinking of throwing an orange at him from the fruit bowl beside you, but ultimately deciding against it, in case it bounced off him and hit Ven or Cloud, who were directly next to him on either side.

"What? It's better than Strife, anyway." He shrugged.

"What's wrong with Strife?" Cloud shot him a look.

"Nothing, it's just so...gloomy. ≈≈≈≈≈'s not gloomy."

"And I am?" Cloud glared, a very gloomy expression on his face.

"Well, your name is Cloud for a pretty good reason." Tifa grinned, noticing his expression and trying her best not to laugh.

"Yeah, because you hide the sunshine and rain on everyone's parade with your temperament." Zack nodded.

"No, that's a Squall. Nobody likes those." Cloud said and all of them, even Ven, broke out into laughter. You looked at Tifa for clarification, but she just shrugged.

"You'd have to know him to get it."

"Know who?"

"No one." Zack piped up, and Cloud palmed his face and shoved him playfully.

"Squall Leonhart. He's our friend, but he left for college this year." Cloud explained, "He was...moody, to say the least."

"Moody? Coming from you?" You laughed.

"I think it's time for the kids to go to school." He glared at you now, then looked at Zack and Ven.

"Alright, fine. We're going." Zack hopped off the counter and took your backpack off the stool and slung it over his shoulder before grabbing Ven by the back of his shirt and giving you a light kick to the butt to get you moving, "Come on, the  _adults_  want alone time."

"The adults need advil."

"Surrrre." Zack grinned as he continued to lead everyone out of the room and made for the front door.

"So where's your better half today, anyway?" Ven asked him, still holding the coffee mug without realizing it.

"Morning detention."

"Fair enough." Ven shrugged.

You laughed, thinking it was funny that you all knew he was talking about Gippal right away, and that Zack's answer made total sense.

**∞**

Class passed at a snail's pace in the morning. Chem was always slow and boring, but you were at least able to pass notes with Sora since he changed seats to the one directly behind you. Then in health you did your math homework with Naminé, knowing break wasn't going to be long enough to get it all done. When break finally rolled around, Axel came sauntering up to your locker where you sat finishing things up, and you walked him through how to get the first few problems done. He tried to bully you into just giving him your work so he could copy it, which you probably would have done eventually since you really didn't care about school that much, but Roxas and Riku were watching the scene play out and thought it was funny so they literally sat down with you to help him and make sure you didn't hand over your homework to him no matter what he did. He was getting pretty desperate too.

"Come on, please? I'll do your homework for a month."

"What do you think, Roxy?" You asked him with a smirk.

"I don't know. I've seen him multiply, it's not pretty." Roxas shrugged.

"Shut up. I'm good at math." Axel glared at him.

"Clearly." Riku scoffed, looking over Axel's shoulder at his homework where he spotted some kind of mistake or another.

"Well, not when I'm under pressure." Axel sighed.

"This is why we do our homework before crunch time." You basked in his misery as he furiously erased something.

"You did yours last period!" He seethed at you, and you laughed.

"Technicality."

"You could be like Roxas, and just do it in class." Riku shot, and Roxas threw his apple slice at him.

"Hey, I'm not the one on trial here."

"Speaking of being on trial, you should have seen the look Cloud gave me after you had to go and open your mouth this morning. I have  _not_  forgiven you for that." Axel hit you in the knee with his pencil.

"What were you doing at her house this morning?" Riku eyed him.

"Well I was going for her homework, but I got the angry brother brigade instead."

"Serves you right." Roxas snickered at him.

"Maybe I'll just tell Cloud you kissed his sister." Now it was Axel's turn to smirk. You and Roxas went red in the face, leaving only Riku laughing.

Riku then looked between the two of you, saw you both looked more embarrassed than amused. He slowly stopped laughing, then just looked at the two of you with a bewildered expression.

"When the fuck did that happen?" His jaw nearly dropped as you and Roxas exchanged a quick, awkward look before looking away at anything else but each other.

"It was no big deal." You shrugged, trying to play it casual despite your cherry red cheeks and ears.

"Yeah, it was for Axel's stupid game. It wasn't our idea." Roxas added.

"I don't think Cloud will see it that way. He's gonna kill you." Axel said in a singsong voice, while Riku just continued to look baffled and stare at you and Roxas.

"Sure he will, because I'll tell him it was you who set it up. Besides, Tifa and Yuffie like Roxas. They'd be on my side and help me convince Cloud that  _you're_ the one he needs to kill."

"Wait, how did I miss this?" Riku tried to find his way back into the conversation despite his obvious shock.

"You were off talking with Kairi, don't worry about it." Roxas brushed his question off, still staring down Axel.

"The  _fuck?"_

"Riku, please." You rolled your eyes at him before also returning to glaring at Axel.

"You kids have fun." Axel smirked as he packed up his notebook and got to his feet, thinking the looks on your faces were way better than getting a passing grade on this homework assignment. "Toodles." He waved as he walked off.

"So..." Roxas cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck, "Anybody else see that Gigas Shadow is on tour in Insomnia? It's, like, a six-hour gummi ride, but I think it could be worth it. Tickets are only going for—"

"Shut up, Roxas." Riku sighed.

"Dude, you  _know_  I can't shut up when I'm freaking out." Roxas snapped at him.

"I have to go to the bathroom." You got to your feet and nearly sprinted away from the two of them, not wanting anything to do with the conversation that was sure to follow.

The two boys watched you go, then Roxas leaned his back against the lockers and hung his head, trying to calm down. Riku just continued to stare at him, a mix of emotions on his face.

"You really kissed her?" He finally asked after staring at him for a few more moments in uncomfortable silence.

"Well, yeah, but it was just a game. It didn't mean anything." Roxas shrugged, "Why do you care, anyway?"

"I don't." Riku said quickly.

"It's not like we're the only ones who kissed either. You don't see Naminé and Pence all buddy-buddy now that they..." Roxas trailed off as he scanned the hall and found the two, sitting in front of Naminé's locker where she was hunched over her sketchpad with Pence sitting next to her. There was a charcoal smudge on her cheek, which Pence reached for to clean off gently with his thumb. The two made eye contact and she began blushing slightly as Pence smiled at her. "That's a fluke." Roxas deadpanned.

"Yeah, definitely." Riku nodded in agreement, then he sighed a little and stared down at his hands, "So...what was it like?"

"I dunno, it was...nice." Roxas rubbed the back of his neck again, his cheeks flushing slightly, "I mean, you know. It was ≈≈≈≈≈≈. She was...how you'd expect her to be." He shrugged. "She's soft, and smells really good, and she had been eating a popsicle so her lips were really sweet. Kinda cold, though. And she shocked me. Literally. She was also—" he paused, about to tell him how you were really nervous and clumsy with your hands, causing him to smile a little to himself as he remembered you fumbling for him in the dark...but then he kind of felt like he didn't want to share every detail with Riku. Like it was his memory with you, and he didn't want anyone else to know. He really liked having this little secret moment with you.

"What?" Riku prodded him to go on.

He sighed, "Nothing. It's just...you know, she's my friend. It's weird to talk about her like this." It was kind of a lie, he thought, but Riku didn't need to know the truth. He didn't need to know that secretly Roxas wanted nothing more than to kiss you again, this time without the pretense of a silly game. That maybe, just maybe, he was starting to develop a thing for you.

"Oh, yeah. Right, of course. But like you said, it didn't mean anything, so—"

"Yeah, no. Nothing at all." Roxas agreed quickly.

"So...what would you say if I told you..." Riku paused for a second, not sure if he was really ready to be saying this, but decided what the hell, "that I kinda like ≈≈≈≈≈≈."

Roxas laughed loudly, then froze when Riku didn't crack a smile to let him know it was a joke, "Wait, are...are you serious?"

"Yeah, kind of."

"You mean you...you're really being serious here?" Roxas gaped at him, like this was the most unnatural thing he had ever said.

"Shut up, Roxas." He scoffed, getting to his feet as the bell rang.

"No, I mean, it's just...you know. Good luck with that." Roxas bit his cheek and stood up as well.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Riku raised an eyebrow at him as he began digging around in his locker for a book.

"Nothing. Just, you're up against Fair  _and_  Genesis, and you're gonna need it, so good luck."

"Wait—Genesis?"

"Oh yeah, you missed that part too." Roxas mused, shutting the locker door and slinging his backpack over his shoulder, "She's gotta go on a date with him."

" _What_?" Riku stared furiously at him, "How much did I miss, exactly?"

"That's it, really. I kissed her, and she asked Genesis out as a dare and he said yes." He shrugged and Riku looked around like nothing in the world made any sense to him anymore.

It was at that moment that you stepped between them and snatched your math book from your locker quickly as you could, catching the tail end of their conversation about Genesis and knowing it still wasn't safe for you to be back here yet, "Sorry, don't mind me." You apologized as you grabbed your book, shut your locker and began to walk off again, trying to get away before they caught you blushing again at the thought you now you had to go to class with Genesis and deal with that.

"Wait, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, your backpack!" Riku called after you, grabbing it off the ground and holding it up for you.

"Keep it." You called back, too embarrassed from this whole ordeal to even think about going back there to face either of them, but especially Roxas.

You walked into the math room, feeling like you needed more than anything to go home and hide in your bed, when things went from bad to worse for you. Axel was in your usual seat by Naminé and Paine, sitting with the biggest shit eating grin you'd ever seen. This meant you'd need to take his seat, which was directly beside Genesis' desk.

'Fuck you.' You mouthed at Axel, who just grinned even more in response.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈? This is your bag right?" Naminé asked, pulling you out of your glaring contest with him as she walked up behind you in the doorway. "Riku gave it to me."

"Oh, yeah. Thanks. Sorry." You tried to clear your head, grabbing your backpack from her and sighing.

"Something wrong?" She asked, stepping out of the way to let Zexion, Vincent and Genesis into the room. You figured that if you just kept talking to her until everyone in the class was seated, it wouldn't look like you were trying to sit next to Genesis, it would just be the only seat left open.

"Yeah, Axel's being a brat about the whole...you know... _date thing_." You whispered the last part, and she blinked at you.

"Date thing? Who are you—oh!" Her face lit up as she remembered the dare. "So he responded to your message?" She beamed at you, only causing you to blush more.

"Yeah, he did." You sighed, "He wanted to talk about it in person...so like...now." You shot Genesis a glance over her shoulder, but he was talking to Zexion and had his back to you.

"Well, go on then! I mean, you do want to go out with him right? That's why I told Selphie that should be your dare, because I thought you wanted to."

"I mean...I don't  _not_  want to, but...it's awkward."

"No it's not, it's—" The late bell rang and Auron walked into the room.

"Take your seats, everyone. Homework to me, begin working on chapter 3, section 2." He said as he walked straight to the back of the class where his desk was to sit, pulling out his red pen in anticipation for everyone's homework.

"What are you doing here, Sinclair?" Paine asked Axel with a scowl on her face when she realized he was staying put.

"Oh, ≈≈≈≈≈ asked if I would switch with her today. She wants to be closer to Genny." Axel said loudly so everyone could hear.

"Great..." You sighed, and Naminé gave your arm a reassuring squeeze before walking over to her desk. She even shot Axel a disapproving glare on your behalf as she sat.

You took the seat next to Genesis, casually making sure not to look at him as you dug in your bag for your homework.

"Good morning, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." He said, sounding completely calm like this was going to be just another typical conversation.

"Morning. How's it going?" You replied, tucking your hair behind your ear nervously. Axel began snickering and you shot him a death glare.

"I'm fine. Is something going on?" Genesis asked, looking at Axel as he began laughing so hard it was impossible to keep it silent, and you reached for your pencil case like you were about to hurl it at him. Genesis quickly put a hand over yours to stop you as your fingers tightened around the pencil case and you began to lift it up.

"He found out about...my text to you...and has been making fun of me for it." You sighed, putting the pencil case back down and turning in your seat so your back was to Axel and you could look at Genesis.

"Making fun of you? What is there to make fun of?"

"I don't know. I can get a little...shy? Awkward...when it comes to things like this. And he knows it, so he's trying to torture me as payback for a joke I made about him to Cloud."

"There's no need for you to feel embarrassed. I was quite happy to get your message, and I would love to take you out for coffee or a meal sometime. He's the one who should be embarrassed for this obviously juvenile attempt to win some attention from you. He might as well be pushing you down on the playground, or dipping the ends of your hair into an inkwell."

"An inkwell?" Axel scoffed, making it clear he was eavesdropping, "What century are you living in?"

"Don't let him see that he gets to you." Genesis ignored Axel completely, taking the homework off your desk and handing it over to Vincent, who had made a pile of everyone else's to take back to Auron, "So, how does Wednesday at 6:00 sound?"

You made sure to shoot Axel a quick look before answering, "It sounds perfect."

**∞**

The rest of the day was pretty calm. Well, calm in comparison to your morning, at least. The rest of your classes went pretty quietly, and you felt like you were doing a really good job pretending like everything was normal with you all day. You were starting to feel really run down by the end of lunch, but thankfully everyone seemed tired and bored in poetry so you didn't look out of place. Then Ven was there for Magic Training class and he was able to heal you up a bit so you felt more like yourself, and soon after you got to practicing with Aqua and were able to keep your mind distracted from the pain of the stigma. If anything, the crap Axel pulled all morning was a really nice distraction for you as well.

You were even feeling well enough that you went with your friends to do homework and watch blitz practice like you usually did, but you started feeling exhausted after just the first hour of practice, and ended up falling asleep on Roxas' lap while Olette played with your hair. It was nice because Roxas seemed just as on board with never talking about the kiss again as you were, so you didn't really have to worry about it.

"Is she okay?" Olette asked after you jolted in your sleep made a pained expression before turning your face into Roxas' sweater.

"Oh, yeah. Just really tired. She told me she didn't sleep well last night." He said quickly.

"Maybe we should wake her up, she might be sick." Olette gave you a worried look, noticing your shaking hands.

"I'm sure she's fine." He tried, but Olette wasn't having it and put a hand on your forehead.

"She feels really warm." She looked from her hand on your forehead to his eyes with an unwavering expression.

"She's fine. People from Midgar probably just run warmer than we do since it's so cold there." He sighed, able to see her bullshit detector go off as he said it. It was colder in Traverse Town, and they both knew it because you were constantly complaining about it.

"I'm gonna go get Ven." She made to get to her feet, but he quickly put a hand on her to stop her. 

"No, don't...don't bother him about this. He's probably busy. I, um...I'll just take her home." He began shaking your shoulder. You mumbled incoherently as you began to wake up, not sure where you were or what was happening.

"Roxas, please let me get him. Just to check on her." She gave you another worried look as you tried to shake yourself free from your pain and troubling dreams.

"What's going on?" You rubbed your eyes, looking between the two of them.

"I'm gonna take you home so you could take a real nap." Roxas said getting to his feet, and you nodded then began looking around for your backpack.

"Are you feeling okay, ≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Olette asked you, ignoring Roxas and taking you by the hand to stop you from getting up.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just about to fall asleep on the spot." You said through a yawn, though secretly you were dying to get out of there and get home.

"Well...Alright, I guess, if you're sure...are you still gonna come over to work on our health project?" She asked hopefully.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I completely forgot about that. Can we raincheck? I'm really burning out here." You rubbed the back of your neck, and she looked between you and Roxas as he handed you your backpack and you got to your feet, doing a poor job of keeping the disappointment off her face.

"Yeah, course. We can just do it tomorrow, or whatever." She gave you a weak smile.

"I'm really, really sorry. Tomorrow, I promise." You called over your shoulder as the two of you began to leave.

"Yup...see you then." She hung her head, and Xion put a hand on her shoulder.

"Olette, what's wrong?" She asked her, noticing her starting after you and Roxas.

"Oh, nothing. It doesn't matter." Olette sighed.

"What? Is this about...Roxas?" Xion followed Olette's eye line and saw she was watching the two of you go with that sorry expression on her face.

"Roxas?" Olette repeated, that comment drawing her out of her thoughts.

"Don't tell me you still have a thing for him." Xion laughed, shoving her playfully.

"For Roxas? Not at all. I got over that years ago." Olette laughed, though Xion caught her looking back over at the door as it swung shut after the two of you left.

"Ohhh, I get it. ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." Xion said, looking at the door now as well.

"Wh—≈≈≈≈≈≈? What about ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈? No one's talking about ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ here." Olette flushed slightly, pulling at the ends of her hair nervously.

"I knew it." Xion beamed.

"K-knew what?" Olette chuckled nervously, trying to remain casual despite her cheeks suddenly flaring up.

"You're jealous ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈'s always hanging out with Roxas, and think there might be something going on with them."

"I'm...what?" Olette blinked.

"You shouldn't worry about her, though. Really. I really don't think they're interested in each other." Xion said, leaning back in the bleachers again to Olette's immense relief since Xion could no longer see her face.

"What makes you so sure?" Olette asked, continuing to twist the ends of her hair around.

"Well, for starters, Roxas has his nose so buried in his music I don't think he knows girls exists yet." Xion laughed.

"Besides, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ likes Genesis." Naminé added, not even looking up from her sketchpad.

"She does?" Olette felt her heart sink, but tried not to let it show in her tone.

"Well, I mean, she agreed to go out with him, after all."

"Genesis!" Selphie seemed to wake up from a dead sleep, the magazine covering her face sliding off as she snapped upright. "You mean he said yes to her dare-date?"

"Yeah, he did. He asked her out during math, and she said yes."

"See Olette? No one is moving in on your Roxas territory." Xion gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

"Ha-ha...wouldn't want that..." Olette bit her cheek as she looked at the door again.

"I have an idea. What if we were to try and set something up?" Selphie got that glint in her eye that meant trouble for everyone.

"Sel, give it a rest." Kairi sighed, able to sense her best friend was up to no good while still managing to stay completely focus on her chemistry homework.

"No, shush, this could work. We just go check on ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ after her date with Genesis—you know, make sure all went well and they are planning to live happily ever after with each other, yadda yadda—then later once she's off the market and we know for sure he's not interested in her, we try and set Olette up with Roxas!"

"Or we could leave well enough alone and all live happily ever after?" Xion offered, and Selphie rolled up her magazine and began swatting her with it.

"Sounds...perfect..." Olette sighed.

**∞**

"So how are you, really?" Roxas asked as the two of you made your way down the stairs in front of the school, passing by where Pence was taking action shots of Hayner trying to do parkour on the bike racks for his photography class.

"I'm alright, I guess." You shrugged lightly, causing your backpack strap to fall off your shoulder. You were so done with the school day and all things related to school that you just let it hang there.

"Are you sure? I mean...I don't want to rub it in, but...stigma is no joke..." He said quietly and carefully, like he was afraid of your reaction to that statement.

"Thanks..."

"I'm sorry, I know that's not helpful, but I just want to know what's going on with you. Even if that means going to Ventus sometimes. Are you sure you just want to go home? You don't want to see him at all?" He asked, stopping in place and completely ready to turn back and go see him if that's what you wanted to do.

"How did your talk with him go last night?" You glossed right over his question.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." He sighed, giving you a concerned look that somehow always made you feel even worse.

"I just saw him in training class, remember? Really, Rox, I'm just tired right now." You began to walk towards home again, and he tentatively followed.

"If you're sure..."

"I am. Look, I'm dealing with it as best I can. I can't just go running for help every time it gets hard. Otherwise I'd never stop running to him."

"You're right, I'm sorry."

You nudge him lightly with your shoulder, "Would you stop apologizing? I know you're just worried about me." You gave him a small smile, and he nodded.

"Sorry." He shrugged, and you shot him a look, "Well, what do you want me to say? I  _am_  sorry. I hate that this is happening to you."

"Yeah, me too." You sighed heavily, rubbing your tired eyes.

"How are you holding up, anyway?" He asked as he took the top loop of your backpack and pulled it so your bag fell off your shoulders and he could sling it over his own.

"It hurts. It's constant, and it's deep, and blindingly painful...but more than anything, I'm just tired of being in public and needing to pretend like it doesn't. The hardest thing about this is trying to make everyone think I'm still normal."

"You are normal."

"I'm sick."

"Yeah, but you're still you."

"I don't feel very much like me." You caught yourself about to sigh again, then shot him a playful look, "Hey, what did I bring you along for if you're just going to depress me?"

He laughed lightly, "Okay, let's change the subject then. So, my talk with Ventus was actually...pretty okay."

"Yeah?" You were genuinely surprised, and happy, to hear that.

"Yeah. I think so." He shrugged a little, and kicked a loose rock on the road in front of him as you walked, "He likes music a lot, too."

"Does he now?" You couldn't help but smile a little at seeing how shy and awkward he was being about getting to talk to his older brother.

"It's funny, you know we have this piano sitting in our living room that no one is allowed to touch, and I always wondered why we had it when we were never given lessons or anything. Then after talking to Ventus last night, I feel like I remember him playing it when we were kids. I mean, we must have been young—Sora and I—when he was still living there with us, and I don't really have any other memories of him, but I can see it really clearly in my head. Sora and I would play on the rug with some toys while he sat practicing at the piano." Then he sighed a little as he kicked the rock again, "I guess that also explains why we're not allowed to touch the piano now. It was his thing, and mom didn't want us having anything to do with it."

"That really sucks, Roxy. I'm sorry your parents are like that."

He gave a weak laugh, "You don't know the half of it."

"But still, it's great you found something in common with Ven. Hey, maybe you could go to that concert in Insomnia with him." You suggested and he suddenly looked very sheepish.

"I don't know about all that, I mean, even if my parents let me go, if they found out it was with him, they'd mount my ass on the wall to serve as an example to others."

"Well, if it's any consolation I doubt my mother would let me go off world without her either. And I'm in no mood to go traveling with her anytime soon."

"Our parents  _suck_. Like, not just dramatic teenage bullshit, they really, really suck." Roxas griped, kicking the rock so hard it skipped several yards ahead and launched into the storm drain across the street.

You laughed at him as you rounded the street corner and your house came into view. Basch was outside doing some landscaping in the yard, re-mulching the front walkway or something similar, and a thought suddenly struck Roxas.

"Hey, I have a question for you, if you don't mind me asking...It's kinda personal, though."

"Shoot. It's not like you don't already know too much about me." You shrugged.

"Where is your real dad? Like...is your mom divorced, or—"

"He's dead." You quickly said, not wanting to talk about the man for a second longer than you had to.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. I...I shouldn't have asked."

You caught the sympathetic look he was giving you now and sighed, "That's...not strictly true. He's not literally dead...but it feels like it sometimes. As for where he is, I don't really know. Midgar Federal Penitentiary, I assume."

"Oh god...that's—I don't know why I asked, I should just—"

"It's fine. You know, sometimes I'm honestly a little jealous Ven doesn't have to live at home. I mean, Basch is trying, but I just don't think I was ever meant to have a nice, happy family. But...anyway...I'll see you later, Rox." You got your bag back from him and began to make your way onto the sidewalk to get to your driveway, but he spoke up before you got too far away.

"Hey, why don't you come over to my house for a little bit? I don't think you've ever been inside." He offered, and despite your desire to just go flop into bed, you had to admit you were curious what their house looked like on the inside. Everyone was always coming over to your place, so you really didn't get a chance to see most of the other houses. Hell, you'd been in Riku's room almost every morning before school, but that was still the only part of his house you had seen, and you had caught him more than once hanging around in your living room when you weren't even home.

"Yeah, okay. If your parents won't mind." You shrugged, and he laughed.

"I doubt they're even home." He rolled his eyes lightly, then lead the way down the street towards his house.

**(Side note: This is kind of how I picture their houses looking, or it's at least close enough to what's in my mind)**

The Rostar's house

The Strife's house

His house was near as massive as your own and both were made of gray stone, but its fixtures were much more grand and old-fashion-elegant looking than your fairly modern style house. There were large, deep chestnut colored double doors greeting you, and stark white marble floors in the foyer. You could see into the living room where a large fireplace had a large oil portrait of a fierce looking blonde man with orange-yellow eyes and a beard stood next to a slim, beautiful brown haired woman with dazzling blue eyes and smiling coral lips **.**

"Are those your parents?" You asked, rooted to your spot in the massive hall, staring at the portrait still even though Roxas had moved on into the next room.

"Hmmm?" Roxas came back over to you with two cans of soda in hand.

"That picture, over the fireplace?" You gestured with your head at it as you took one of the cans from him.

"Oh, yeah...good old mom and pop..." He looked at the picture and shuddered lightly, "Even in pictures he looks mean." He mumbled, then the sound of him opening the can echoed through the room.

"Your mother is beautiful." You said admiringly. Sure, you knew Riku mentioned she used to be an actress, but you didn't think she would really have the looks of a classic movie star.

"Yeah, she used to be."

"Roxas!" You hit him in the shoulder and scoffed at him, "How can you say that?"

"What?" He laughed, "Plastic surgery does weird things to a face."

"Shut up, Roxas!" You hit him again for good measure for talking that way about his own mother. 

"Well, I'd say you could go and meet her, but she's probably off getting lip injections or botox stuck in her nose or whatever it is ladies do for their midlife crisis. At least dad just bought a bunch of scotch and cars for his."

"You're a terrible son, you know that?" You shook your head at him, and he shrugged.

"They were terrible parents first."

"Awww, is that little baby Sora?" You gushed, seeing a photo on the wall of a tiny Sora, maybe six years old, standing on a swim meet winners block on first place holding a trophy that was nearly as big as he was. He still had his goggles on and was beaming though his front teeth were missing.

"Oh god, yeah we're going upstairs before you find the pictures of me." He quickly pulled you along by the arm over to the large staircase and leading you up it.

"Oh come on, you've seen all my mom's embarrassing photos of me."

"You said that I know too much about you, right? See, I brought you over here to help give you a little insight on me, but I'm not trying to fill your arsenal with embarrassing ammo to hold over my head for years to come."

"You have that arsenal of stuff about me." You shot back, pouting as he ran ahead to turn a picture frame over in the hall before you could see it.

"Yeah, but I'm nice and would never use it against you. You, on the other hand..."

"What?" You laughed, "Are you saying I'm mean?"

"Three words: competitive rage mode."

"I do not—"

"You're doing it right now!"

His room was about what you would expect from him, with posters covering the walls and a guitar in the corner. When he stepped into the room, he even unclipped his skateboard from his backpack and rolled it along under his desk, putting that into place. Even though he had clearly made his mark on the room, you could see the elegant characteristics of the house poking through. The hardwood floor was made of a dark wood that complimented the built-in bookcases he had filled with more CDs and records than books.

More than anything though, you liked the look of the big bean-bag chair in the corner. You grabbed a pillow off his bed and fell into the chair with a relaxed sigh, ignoring his snicker as you did. Luckily he knew your intention was to pass out as soon as you got to his room, so he didn't say anything as you began to fall asleep, and put on some quiet music as he sat at his desk to finish up his homework.

**∞**

Napping became kind of a routine for you over the next couple of days. It gave Ven time to teach Cloud more white magic for nice little two hour windows at a time. He was really getting better at it, too, you thought, though he seemed to be in constant fear he wasn't doing it right or well enough. You didn't mind though. It was just nice to get some relief, no matter how small. You knew he was trying to work up to being able to get you through a full night of sleep like Ven could so you would be alright on the school trip, but you were half convinced Zack and Gippal would find a way to kidnap you and stick you in their group regardless. Besides, if Lulu was really worried about how you would do without Ven then she would pull you out of the regular groups.  

Still, it was always a comfort to know that if the pain ever got to be too much at night you could just stick your hand over the side of your bed and Ven's fingers would find yours in the dark and hold onto you until you fell asleep again.

You became pretty close to Ven, since he was like a new roommate for you now. You walked to school with him, spent a portion of lunch in his office in the nurses' office with him, and waited until sports practices were done after school so you could walk home together too, and then he hung out at your house for the rest of the night. People would make jokes about how the two of you were practically joined at the hip, but you would just laugh it off and pretend you had just become fast friends and liked to hang out. You still weren't comfortable with telling anyone that you physically needed to have him nearby because you were hiding an illness from them all. Besides, it also meant that if Roxas and Sora wanted to hang out with you, they had to spend some much needed time with their estranged older brother too.

In fact, you and Ven had gotten so close that he was even helping you get ready for your date with Genesis on Wednesday after school. Though 'helping' might be a strong word to describe what he was doing.

"Which do you like better? This one, or this one?" You asked, holding up a dress on one hanger and a sweater on the other.

"Sure." He answered, not looking up from his book. He was sitting on your bed leaning against the wall, wrapped up in the quilt that normally sat at the foot of your bed in case you got cold at night. He looked like he was ready to sit there for the next six hours if no one made him get up.

"Ven." You shot him a glare he couldn't help but look up at. He looked up at you over the brim of his glasses to show your glare didn't faze him, then looked between the two hangers boredly.

"Why don't you just go naked? That'll set a real tone." He returned his attention to his book, shifting against the wall so he was more sitting sideways to you than looking directly at you, and couldn't feel your glare as intensely.

"If you're not going to be helpful, you can just—"

"Fine, the green one." He sighed, looking over and giving the moss green dress another glance.

"Thank you. Was that so hard?" You shook your head as you turned back to the mirror in your closet and held up the dress, still not sure if it was good enough even with Ven's approval on it. After all, you suspected he only chose it because he liked the color green.

"If you're having that much trouble picking an outfit, just wear your school uniform. Tell him you got wrapped up in homework and forgot to change before going out." He said, watching you as you made an uncertain face in the mirror as you looked at the sweater he didn't pick a second time.

"But then he'll think I didn't put any thought into this at all, and don't care." You groaned as you took another look through your closet, deciding you didn't like either of the two that much.

"Maybe it's better that way. If he knew what an overly analytical psycho you are, he wouldn't want to date you in the first place." He mumbled just loudly enough that you could still hear him perfectly fine.

"Shut up, I'm not over analytical. I'm just a girl. It's what we do." You shrugged his comment off as you pulled the sweater on to see if you liked it any better when it was actually on you. With the sweater on you began to focus on your face and hair in the mirror and sighed.

"He's not there to go out with your outfit, he's there for you. It shouldn't matter if you wore a potato sack. And if he thinks that does matter, then maybe you shouldn't be going out with him to begin with. You're not just an object to be looked at, you're a person. If he really sees that, then he won't care." He clapped his book shut and looked at you carefully to see if his words hand sunk in.

"Whitestrips." You replied, and he blinked a few times as he tried to process that response.

"What?"

"Whitestrips." You said again as you disappeared into the bathroom.

"Your teeth are plenty white, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." He sighed heavily, hitting his head against the wall a few times until you returned to the room.

"Not as white as his." You said, lisping slightly from the strips you just put on your teeth as you checked a clock so you knew when to take them off.

"No one has teeth as white as him. You know his mother's a dentist, right?"

"She is?" You stopped short, then shrugged thinking it made sense, then added, "You know who else has nice teeth?"   
"You?" He chimed in hopefully.

"Zack." You finished your thought, completely ignoring him once again.

"I'll tell him you said that." He resumed hitting his head against the wall, thinking that was doing about as much good as talk to you.

"I bet he goes to Genesis' mom for cleanings." You grumbled bitterly.

"Oh my god, just kill me."

A knock came at the door, and Ven literally let out a sigh of relief as Tifa walked into the room, "Are you almost ready, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" She asked as she walked over to you and stood beside you in the mirror.

"Not really." You sighed, and you heard Ven scoff from his little corner of the room, "Shut up."

"Why don't you let me take if from here, Ven?" Tifa laughed, getting a sense that things were getting a little tense between the two of you.

"I'm going for a smoke break." Ven grumbled as he got to his feet.

"You smoke?" Tifa asked as he began to storm out of the room, clearly not getting his sense of humor very well.

"No, but spending time with this maniac is making me want to pick it up." He said, messing up his hair with his hand as he prepared to leave the room.

"Bite me." You rolled your eyes.

"Save it for Genny." He elbowed you as he walked past you.   
"Make one more joke and I will put your head through a goddamn window." You snapped at him, since he knew embarrassing this whole date was for you and had been cracking jokes all week.

"Ooooo, scary." He smirked, and you were about to try and elbow him when Tifa put a hand on your shoulder.

"Let's get that hair done, or you're gonna be late." Tifa got between the two of you and Ven skirted around you both to get out of the room. With him gone, Tifa helped you pick out a nice dress to wear. She helped you put your hair up while you threw on some makeup and put on your shoes. She was able to help you get ready in all of twenty minutes, where you had been struggling with Ven for nearly an hour.

You were just waiting for your whitestrips to finish doing their job when the doorbell rang, "Here we go..." You sighed, getting to your feet with Tifa.

"You'll be fine, don't worry. You look beautiful." She gave you a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder.

"Thanks...but...what am I supposed to talk about?" You shot her a worried look as she began to walk you out of your bedroom and towards the stairs.

"I don't know. Animals." She shrugged.

"Animals?" You raised an eyebrow at her, and she shrugged.

"Don't' worry. It'll all come naturally to you. And if it doesn't, it doesn't. Just means it wasn't meant to be, and you move on. There's nothing to be scared of."  
"I see him in class every day, if I make an idiot of myself—"

"Stressing about it won't help. Just go out there, and have a great time." She said, stopping you and made you face her as the two of you came to the front door. She poked you between the eyebrows so you would stop making that worried face, and then she pinched your cheeks to pinken them up a bit, then poked your lips up into a smile, "Hold that face." She grinned as she pulled open the door, then her smile dropped and she sighed, "What are you doing here, Zack?"

"I just came to hang out, chill." He laughed at her sour expression, not daunted at all

"Zack?" You poked your head around the door and saw Zack standing there in a baggy hoodie and some sweatpants, his hair still wet from blitz practice. Yuffie was there too, but Tifa didn't seem to mind her presence.

"What's going on?" Yuffie asked as she made her way into the house.

"Nothing. Just get inside." You urged them to hurry in, so Genesis didn't have to walk up to your house and pick you up in front of a viewing party.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈? Wow, you look—" Zack started, but Tifa cut him off.

"Yeah, yeah, save it. Get out of the way." Tifa grabbed him by the front of his hoodie and pulled him into the house before closing the door.

"What's going on?" He looked between the two of you, then his eye lingered on you for a second longer than Tifa cared for, so she shoved him towards the living room where she knew Cloud and Ven were.

"Would you get out of here?" She sighed.

"Alright, alright. I'm going." He held up his hands, sensing this was a hostile situation for him, though that didn't stop him from looking back at you over his shoulder as he walked out of the room.

"Zack, I will put your head through a goddamn window if you don't get out of here." She seethed at him, and you shot her a look.

"Jesus woman, I'm going. Sheesh!" He scoffed as he wandered off over to Cloud, "What did you do to make her so mad?" He asked as he flopped down on the couch.

"Hey, she's not mad at me, I don't know." Cloud replied lazily.

"Tifa?" You raised an eyebrow at her.

"What? It was a good insult." She shrugged as she peeked through the curtains beside the front door. Meanwhile Yuffie just looked between the two of you with a confused expression.

"Someone want to tell me what's going on?" She asked, "You do look nice though, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈."

"Oh, thanks!"

"Genesis is supposed to pick ≈≈≈≈≈≈ up for their date any minute now."

"What!? Date? When did that happen!?" Yuffie gushed, grabbing your hands.

"Shhhh, he's coming!" Tifa swatted her away, and you felt your heart kick up into your throat.

"Ooooo you have to tell me all about it as soon as you get back!"

"Alright guys, you can go now." You said as you saw Genesis turn onto your road.

"No way!" Yuffie was beaming.

You sighed heavily and thought very much about just going back up to your room, when you suddenly remembered his sweater was up on your desk in your room. "Oh shit, I'll be right back!" You said, taking off for the stairs.

"Wh—≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ he'll be here in a second!" Tifa said, then Yuffie squealed and laughed, pointing out the window.

"He's at the driveway!" Tifa called after you.

"Stall him!" You said, though you didn't know if they could hear you from up the stairs. The doorbell sounded, and Yuffie gushed. Tifa shushed her, but she had to work to get her own grin under control as she opened the door.

"Genesis?" She answered it, trying to play it cool.

"Tifa, what a surprise." He said, though somehow not sounding surprised to see her in the slightest.

"I'm here too." Yuffie said, popping up next to Tifa beside the door.

"Always a pleasure, Yuffie. I'm sorry, I didn't realize the Strife's had company this evening." Genesis nodded a greeting at Yuffie, then looked over their shoulders to get a look at Zack staring at him from over the back of the couch in the living room with a shocked look on his face.    

"Oh, no need to apologize. We're all over here most of the time anyway, it's not like you're interrupting anything." Yuffie shrugged, eyeing his outfit and hair with a growing smile. He was just in a simple light blue sweater and dark gray jeans, but somehow he looked even more perfect for a date than she could have imagined.

"What can we do for you?" Tifa asked, discretely jabbing an elbow into Yuffie as she began giggling to herself.

"I'm looking for ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, actually." He said, looking past them to the living room again, though not seeing you among the boys on the couch.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈? Now what would you want with our little ≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Yuffie asked, and he looked between the two of them with a small smile.

"I take it she told you, and that's why you're playing with me."

"Playing with you? Genny, we would never." Yuffie couldn't keep the grin off her face.

"What are you guys doing? Leave him alone." Cloud called, noticing they were practically circling him like vultures.

"We're not doing anything besides talking while we wait for ≈≈≈≈≈≈ to get down here."

"Genesis, come wait in here. Don't let them scare you off." Cloud walked over to get them to back off of him and led him into the living room before taking his seat on the couch again next to Zack, with Ven on the L shaped couch a few feet away.

"Why, is that your job?" Tifa scoffed.

"They can try all they like, but nothing would scare me away from being here tonight." Genesis said, though he seemed thankful to be pulled away from them.

"We're not scaring him, we're just trying to map out his intentions for the night." Yuffie said indignantly as she followed them over to the couches.

"So...what does bring you here?" Zack asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"I'm here to pick ≈≈≈≈≈≈ up for dinner." He replied simply, and Zack laughed.

"Yeah, okay. Why are you really here?" He was smiling, but then as he looked around the room and no one gave any indication that it was a joke.

His mouth hung open slightly as he looked at Cloud, who shrugged. "You're letting his happen?"  
"Why not?"

"She's your sister."   
"So?"

" _So?_ So! You're letting her go out with the likes of him?"

"The likes of me?" Genesis shot Zack a look, but Zack ignored him.

"You won't let me go out with her because you don't trust me, but you don't even know him!"

"I think it's because he does know you that he won't let you go out with her." Yuffie smirked.

"Shut up. I am just as good as he is, without the attitude."

" _My_  attitude? What exactly have I ever done to you, Fair?" Genesis asked, and Zack crossed his arms grumpily.

"Maybe we  _should_  talk by the door..." Cloud sighed, getting to his feet with Tifa and walking with Genesis away from Zack, who was probably going to try to start a fight with Genesis in a minute.

"Ah, that's hilarious." Yuffie grinned as she watched the three of them walk away, "You think you're as good as Genesis."

"I am!"

She and Ven just laughed.

"What's so great about him, and so terrible about me?" He scoffed, crossing his arms even tighter over his chest as he sank into the seat.

"Well, for starters you're kinda dumpy." Ven said, also getting a smirk as he ganged up with Yuffie against Zack.

"Dumpy?" Zack repeated, taking a look down at his outfit—which was really essentially his pajamas—then glared at them both, "Like you two are any better."

Yuffie was also in basically jammies, wearing leggings and a hoodie, and Ven was literally in green plaid flannel pajama pants with a big gray sweater on top.

"Well we're not trying to date ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, now are we?" Yuffie shot back, and Zack clenched his jaw as he looked at Genesis again as he chatted calmly and quietly with Tifa and Cloud.

"I'm not dumpy. He's just perfect." He grumbled, though in the back of his mind he was thinking he could never be as cool, calm, and collected as Genesis was, especially not if he was about to go on a date with someone like you.

"Who's dumpy?" You asked, leaning on the back of the couch just behind Zack, apparently none of them were paying any attention when you came down the stairs with Genesis' sweater in hand. Zack and Yuffie both even had to whip around in their seats to look back and see you.

"Zack." Ven snickered, and you instantly knew you didn't like the looks on his or Yuffie's faces.

"Are you two bullying him?" You raised a brow at them, and Yuffie laughed.

"He's twice my size, you think I'm capable of bullying him?"

"Yup." You didn't miss a beat. "Don't worry Zack, you're not dumpy...well, you are, but so am I, and they're even worse."

"Speak for yourself." Ven scoffed.

"Shut it, fluffy socks." You shot him a look, noting that he seemed to have helped himself to a pair of your black fluffy lounging socks.

"Whatever happened to your casa is mi casa?" He shrugged.

"I never said that. And I definitely never said you could rifle through my sock drawer." You narrowed your eyes at him, "What other drawers have you been going through?"

"Well, I mean I went through all of them looking for the socks, but trust me, it wasn't by choice. But since we're on the subject, can we talk about some of the things I found in your underwear drawer? There's not safe for work, and then there's 'wait, what's your line of work, again?'"

"Oh ha-ha, you found the thongs. Congratulations. Idiot." You rolled your eyes, and he gave you a blank look.

"I don't think I can hear this conversation." Zack turned to face forward in his seat so he could avoid looking at you, his face going slightly red.

"Oh please, Zack, some girls wear thongs, get over it. Hell, I'm wearing one right now, and so is Tifa." Yuffie said, looking over at Tifa and seeing she was also in leggings.

"That or she's not wearing underwear at all." You observed, and you could practically feel the discomfort growing in the air between the two boys.

"I was kidding." Ven said, glaring at you a little bit for taking the conversation farther than he thought you would.   
"I'm aware." You shot back smirking slightly, "Pick your battles better next time."

"Just be grateful we didn't turn the topic to tampons." Yuffie grinned, and Zack cringed.

"Touché." Ven mumbled as he bit the inside of his cheek and avoided eye contact with either of you.

You and Yuffie exchanged a triumphant grin, and you put your hands on Zack shoulders and gave them a squeeze before telling him to lighten up a little.

"Oh, there's ≈≈≈≈≈≈." Tifa looked over and saw you and waved you over. "Are you ready to go?" Genesis asked, a smile forming on his lips at the sight of you.

"Yeah, just a second." You said, messing up Zack's hair a little before making your way over to them.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do." Yuffie said as you walked by her.

"Don't do anything she would do." Zack grumbled, and she threw a pillow at him.

"You look so nice." You said to Genesis as you walked up and he was about say something in turn, when Cloud got between the two of you.

"So, where are you guys going again?" Cloud asked as you walked up.

"Fountian Plaza café." He answered, not seeming daunted at all by Cloud's tough older brother act.

"And when will you get her home?"

"Cloud, you are  _not_  my father." You snapped at him under your breath.

"You want me to get Basch out here? Because I will." He gave you a look that said 'try me' and you bit your tongue.

"No later than 8:00 but, you know the two of you are more than welcome to join us, if you'd like." 

You were about to say something along the lines of 'fuck no you're not welcome,' but Tifa spoke up before you could, "Oh, that's alright. We already have plans to stay in with our friends, but thanks for the offer, it's very sweet of you."

"Okay, well we're just gonna get out of here then. Time's a-wasting, and all." You said, taking Genesis by the arm and making for the door, not wanting to stick around any longer than you had to, you opened the door and began to make your way outside when Cloud stopped Genesis again.

"Hey Genesis..." Cloud shot you a quick look before continuing, "She's sick."

"Cloud!" You shot him a look that could kill, but he ignored you and kept looking at Genesis.

"If something happens, or you feel like something is wrong with her, you bring her home. Or call me. Or Ven." He was quiet, and looked more like he was worried than angry or making threats, but you still couldn't believe he just said that.

"Goddamn it, Cloud." You said through your teeth, furious that he would spill your secret like that.

"I'm sorry, ≈≈≈≈≈≈, but you're going to be alone out there, then I need to know you're taken care of." He looked at Genesis so he didn't have to look at you as you glared and glared at him.   
Genesis quickly got between the two of you, "I understand completely. I have both of your numbers, and I'll get Ven's from ≈≈≈≈≈≈ before we leave. You have nothing to worry about, I assure you, I don't intend to let anything happen to her."

"Glad to hear it. You two have fun!" Tifa said, practically shoving Genesis out of the doorway and shutting the door in your faces. "She's sick? What the hell does that mean?" You heard Tifa ask through the door, and you caught Genesis giving you a concerned look.

"Are you feeling alright?" He asked gently enough, but you scoffed and began walking down the driveway towards the road.

"I knew I should have met you at your place instead." You sighed, thinking you should have seen this coming. You still weren't really talking to your mother, and you didn't honestly feel that close to Basch yet, so Cloud kind of took on the role of the one who had to watch out for you and dictate what you could and couldn't do. Most of the time you appreciated it, but right now you felt like crying again. "Great start, right? Really makes you wanna get out while you can." You held a hand up to your forehead as you continued to walk towards the street at a near run.

"Alright, then let me start over." He put a hand on your shoulder and stopped you from charging off any further, and turned you so he could see your face, "You look beautiful."

"Nice try." You gave him a weak smile in return, knowing you probably looked like a wreck right now as you fought to keep your eyes from starting to water. You were able to swallow your emotions for the most part, and felt the sting in your eyes die down as he took your hand.

"I got you something." He said as he reached into his pocket.

"No you didn't..." You sighed as you watched him pulled out a small, plain silver bracelet and placed it around your wrist. "Why is it that 99% of our relationship is you trying to give me things?" You asked, admiring the bracelet around your wrist with what was turning into a real smile now as you began walking down the street again with your arm linked with his.

"That's not true. I spend at least five percent of our time together helping you with math homework. And another five percent helping you find your way." He smiled as he had to gently pull you around the corner of the street to stop you from continuing on going straight.

"Maybe next time you can get me a map."

"Next time?" He gave you a sideways look with that charming smile still playing on his lips, "Are you feeling more optimistic?"

You gave a light shrug and tucked your hair behind your ear so you could avoid looking directly at him, "I guess I am. Oh, hey, I have something for you too." You stopped, suddenly remembering that you had been holding his maroon sweater this whole time. "I believe this belongs to you." You said, holding it up for him.

"Does it?" He took it from you to examine it more closely, "Maybe you should keep it. It's not my color." He handed it back to you, and you shot him a dry look.

"It's your favorite color."

"It looks better on you."

"You're impossible, you know that?" You shook your head, but took the sweater back all the same, knowing it was useless to fight with him about it. Besides, it was a comfortable sleeping shirt for you anyway.

**∞**

You decided to sit outside at the café since inside looked pretty small and cramped, and it was a nice night out anyway. The air was chilly but not cold, so you ordered a soup and a warm drink and were able to fully enjoy the briskness of the evening. Conversation seemed to be flowing pretty naturally for you as well, which was a pleasant surprise. He was asking you about where you were from on Midgar, and what life was like there and your old friends, and you in turn asked about where he was from and found out he was also born on Gaia, in the Banora Villages far to the south, but had never been to the city. It was part of the reason why he loved the Loveless series so much, because apparently the author was from the same town as he was. You marveled at the fact that you had never met anyone from Banora while you were living in Midgar, but now halfway across the galaxy from Gaia you had. He then went on to tell you that actually, if he remembered correctly, Zack was originally from Gongaga, and Yuffie was from Wutai, and that Cloud had lived with your 'uncle' Cid in Nibelheim for a good long time when he was younger, and that's where he met Tifa.

**(Map of Gaia with just a few relevant places)**

"Wow. I really had no idea so many people here were from Gaia." You said, thinking about all the questions you had to ask everyone about why they never mentioned living there, but first, "Banora...I know I've heard of it before..."

"Probably because of its most popular export, dumbapples." He shrugged, and you scowled at him.

"Why does everyone in this town feel the need to give me a nickname?" You crossed your arms and sat back in your seat grumpily and he laughed.

"I've only ever seen that look on your face when you're talking to Zack or Axel." An amused smile lit up his face as he laughed at you.

"That's because they're the only ones who make fun of me like that." You continued to glare at him, no matter how pearly white and pretty his smile was.

"I wasn't making fun of you. Dumbapples, as in Banora Whites?"

You blinked, realizing you did know what Banora Whites were, and that's where you knew the town Banora from. It was famous for these white-purple apples that were kind of like a mix between a plum and an apple, but sweeter than both. Your face began to heat up as you realized you snapped at him for nothing. He must have seen how pink you were getting, because his smile got wider. "But...why do you call them dumbapples?"

"The Banora White trees would bloom and bear fruit at random times during the year, so the towns people took to affectionately calling them dumbappels."

"Oh..." You mumbled dumbly, tucking your hair behind your ear as did habitually when you started to feel self-conscious...or in this case, stupid.

"Oh." He chuckled at you as he took a sip of his coffee. You looked at your empty bowl of soup as you flushed even more under his gaze.

"So..." You felt even more stupid as you struggled to come up with some way to change topics, "Do you like...animals?" You sighed as you asked it, knowing how dumb it sounded, but it was your only backup topic.

"Animals?" He shrugged, "Of course I like animals."

"That's great...me too..." You deflated, thinking that was about the worst conversation you had ever had.

"Why do you ask?" He smiled, knowing you were bombing, but too polite to call you on how dumb that was.

"Oh you know...I was just thinking...you remind me of a one of those red wolf-lion things, you know, the ones that live in the Cosmo Canyon back on Gaia?" (think Red XIII)

"Do I now?"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, what are you doing here?" Someone called out, to you, and you whipped around in your chair to see Reno and Demyx walking up, a big instrument in Demyx's hand.

"Hey, guys...what's going on?" You asked, sinking into your seat slightly.

"Oh, I play here for tips some nights." Demyx shrugged, strumming a chord absently as he and Reno looked from you to Genesis to you again.

"And I'm on my way home from work...are you on a date?" Reno said, trying to piece together any situation that would put you and Genesis together at a dinner table in front of a café that didn't end with the two of you being on a date. He got a smirk on his face as you glared at him with a blush dusting your cheeks. "Oh, you are just precious." His smirk got wider as your embarrassment grew more and more obvious. "Awww, look at you, you're blushing. Are you blushing for Genny, or for me?" He reached for the cup of hot chocolate in front of you, but Genesis put a hand over it to stop him from lifting it up to take a drink.

"Yes, we're on a date. Would you like to sit, or will be you getting on your way?" Genesis interrupted your stare down with Reno, giving him a look that you could only describe as icy, and you thanked your luck stars he was there right now. There were very few people who Reno was scared of enough to leave you alone when he could see he had such an obvious advantage over you, but Genesis was one of them. In fact, Demyx dipped right out of the conversation at this point and wandered over to the fountain and began playing music.

"Alright, I'm going." Reno shrugged as he began to skirt around the table, running a finger against your shoulders as he walked around you, sending shivers down your spine. You jabbed an elbow out behind you, and nailed him in the hip as he passed. He yelped and swatted at the back of your head, only to have Genesis catch his hand.

"Reno." Genesis said sternly, and Reno looked like he might pee his pants as he pulled his hand away.

"Sorry." He mumbled to Genesis, then he looked as you again and scowled at your shit eating grin, knowing that he had to walk away from the table with his tail between his legs, "Have a nice date, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." He said in a mocking voice to make sure he didn't leave with you thinking you'd won this little standoff.

"Have a nice walk home." You called back as he left, and he shot you a look over his shoulder as he made his way out of the district. While you snickered happily to yourself you settled back at the table, Genesis watched you with a thoughtful expression. "What?" You finally asked, after he continued to stare at you, getting a small smile.

"You remind me of a betta fish."

You shot him a very deadpan, very dry look, firstly because he decided to go back to this stupid conversation, and secondly because he just called you, "A fish?"

"A  _betta_ fish." He smiled at your reaction, but you continued to blink slowly and sarcastically at him.

"Why?"

"Because," He picked a flower out of the centerpiece on the table and reached over to hand it to you, "you're beautiful, but you also want to fight everyone."

"That's...not strictly true..." You said sheepishly.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." It was his turn to give you a dry look.

"I don't want to fight you." You shrugged meekly, taking the flower from him and rolling it between your fingers.

"Thank god for that, I doubt I'd win." He laughed.

"What are you talking about, you just got Reno to run scared with a look."

"Sure, but you'd never fall for that." He said, and just as you were about to reply, an alarm went off on his phone and he sighed, "That's my cue to take you home."

"Cloud won't mind if we're a few minutes late." You shrugged, but he laughed at that too.

"That's another fight I don't think I'd win." He said as he began to get to his feet. You sighed, but put your napkin on the table all the same and grabbed your bag. You'd never understand why everyone was so careful around Cloud, but figured at least it came in handy sometimes.

As he came around and helped you out of your chair and pushed it in, your heart gave a jolt of electricity that ripped through you like a lightning bolt. You gripped the back of the chair and tried to keep yourself from gasping. You were so lost in your dinner and your conversations that you almost forgot about the pain you had been ignoring all night, only to have it strike back with vengeance. You could feel the pain move from your heart out to your arms, down through your stomach, into your leg, and back up again. You got a sick feeling in your stomach as you realized that you were able to feel the poison being carried by your blood around your body.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" He had been holding out his arm for, but you were zoning out. You snapped out of your disgust and fear by pulling on the sweater he refused to take back from you to hide your face from him as you pulled yourself together. You popped your head out of the neck hole and tried to smile as you mumbled an apology and reached a shaking hand for his arm. He caught your hand and helped lead it to his arm, and you refused to look up at him as you felt his fingers tighten around your trembling fingers. "Are you—"

"We get back home going this way, right?" You asked, cutting him off before he could finish asking that question you hated so much.

"Yes, that's right." He said, beginning to walk with you and picking up on the vibe that you didn't want to talk about it.

You kept a hand clenched over your chest, feeling more pain build as your heart beat against your ribs like it was trying to break them, and you could see that he noticed this but didn't say anything.

"Don't worry, I'm just a little cold." You lied, hugging yourself as you walked.

"Would you like my jacket?" He offered, but you shook your head.

"That's alright, my house isn't that far. I'll be okay." You shrugged. "Besides, I'd never get you to take it back from me." You shot him a look and he laughed.

Meanwhile, Cloud, Zack, and Ven were sitting on the porch swing outside your house.

"Alright, they're gonna be back soon. Maybe we should go in." Ven said, taking the last sip of the hot chocolate he was holding before having a good stretch. He had been reading a medical book and Zack was playing on his phone, but Cloud was sitting there staring at the road.

"You can go in if you want. I'm waiting." Cloud said, seeming a little nervous to the others but they weren't going to say anything.

"That's the whole point of us being out here." Zack sighed.

"Oh, I thought we were just kinda hanging out..." Ven deflated, getting to his feet, "Well, there's an hour wasted in the cold." He grumbled, closing his book and stretching again before beginning to make like he was going to go inside, but Cloud grabbed him by the back of the shirt and made him sit back down, "But then again, I love wasting time." He sighed, realizing Cloud wanted him there to make sure you were alright after being off on your own.

"Ven, shut up. Why are you  _always_  talking?" Zack hit him in the arm as Ven bumped into him when he sat.

"I talk when I'm bored, and you're  _always_  boring me." Ven hit him back.

"Both of you never shut up, but I'm gonna ask you nicely.  _Shut up_." Cloud snapped at them, and Ven crossed his arms while Zack scoffed.

"That wasn't asking nicely." Zack rolled his eyes.

"Cloud, if you're this worried, why'd you even let her go?" Ven asked as he rested his chin on his fist on the armrest.

"Because if I said she couldn't go, what do you wanna bet that would have only made her want to go more?"

"That's true enough. She's a wily one." Ven shrugged.

"I don't know, you've told her not to go out with me and she doesn't seem to care." Zack deflated with a heavy sigh as he sat low in his seat and let his head fall over the back of the swing.

"Aw, that's not true. You should hear her talk about your pretty teeth." Ven said in a mock consoling tone, then he reached across Zack's lap to jam a hand down on Cloud's bouncing leg, "Would you stop? Your anxiety is giving me anxiety."

"Wait, what about my teeth?" Zack popped back up from his depressed stupor, but they ignored him.

"Sorry. You think she's alright though, right?"

"Yeah, of course." Ven shrugged like that was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Are just saying that?" Cloud eyed him.

"Yeah, of course." He repeated in the exact same tone, and Cloud glared at him.

"What's wrong with you guys? What are you so worried about? I mean, I'm not happy about this either, but it's not like he's gonna kill her." Zack said looking between the two of them like he didn't understand what the big deal was. Which, to be fair, he didn't, "It's Genesis after all. Worst case scenario, she comes back with a taste for cucumber water and lobster, or something else fancy. Caviar."

"Maybe you should just go home, Zack." Cloud said, pulling out his phone to check the time to see if you were late yet, but realized it was still 15 minutes until 8:00.

"You know, I'm sensing some very weird hostility right now. Is everything okay here? Like...Ven, you've been hanging out a lot, and Cloud...well, I can't say maybe you're just not super pumped about your new big brother role, but it seems like you're a little on edge. And by on edge, I mean I'm slightly afraid  _you're_ going to kill her. And him. And Ven. And me."

"Maybe I am." Cloud shot him a look, and Zack raised an eyebrow at him.

"Don't take that tone with me."

"Oh hey, they're coming." Ven said, interrupting them.

"Oh, unbelievable. Would you fuckers get inside?" You snapped, almost as soon as you rounded onto your driveway from the street and saw the three of them sitting out on the porch like they were waiting for you.

"It's alright ≈≈≈≈≈≈. They just wanted to be sure you got home alright." Genesis said, giving your arm a squeeze to calm you down.

"They just wanted to make sure you don't try anything at the door, more likely."

Genesis looked from Cloud to Zack and Ven and realized that you might be right, so he stopped and turned to face you, unlinking arms with you and held your hands, "In that case, I hope you have a pleasant night. I'm so happy to have been able to take you out."

"I had a great time." You smiled, then shot an uneasy glace over to the porch where you felt the three boys watching you.

He brought a hand up to your cheek to make you look away from them and back at him, "Me too. Maybe we could do it again sometime?"

"I'd like that." You held eye contact with him despite your burning cheeks. You could have sworn you heard Zack groaning in the background, but ignored him.

He brought your hand up to his lips and put a soft kiss on your knuckles, then smiled and said, "Goodnight, dumbapples."

You rolled your eyes and shoved him back from you as you laughed, "Goodnight Genny." You shook your head as you continued to walk down your driveway towards the house. When you got to the door, you tried your best to just breeze past the three boys and get inside, but then Cloud called out for Genesis.

"Hey Genesis, wait up." Cloud said, getting to his feet. You stopped at the door and turned right back around.

"What are you doing?" You shot him a look, your hand falling off the door knob.

"I just want to talk to him." He shrugged, and you were about to stop him from getting off the porch, but Genesis was already at the steps.

"What is it, Cloud?" He asked, trying to calm the situation by complying.

"Was she...is she alright?" He asked, eyeing you for a moment before looking at Genesis.

"Really? You're going to do this in front of them now too?" You gestured at Ven and Zack who were sitting silent as could be on the swing.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, go inside. Genesis?"

"I think you should be asking her." Genesis shrugged.

"I'm fine." You got between the two of them, crossing your arms over your chest defiantly.

"She doesn't tell me the truth." Cloud gave you a weary look then looked back at Genesis who sighed.

"There...was a moment where...I don't know, she seemed to be in pain as we were leaving the café."

"Genny..." You sighed, and he gave you an apologetic look.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not going to lie to him."

"Cloud, if I want to tell people about it, that's my choice, not yours, so just—" You had made the poke him in the chest to get him to back off, but gasped as you saw your fingertips had lit up a ghostly white-gray color and had strange hexagonal ridges poking up from underneath the skin, and lightning began to swirl around your hand. You were about to say something about how you weren't doing that and didn't know what was happened, when your heart clenched and sent a paralyzing wave of pain through you. You began to collapse, falling sideways towards the hard cement stairs, not even having enough control over yourself to scream as you buckled. Genesis and Cloud both threw out an arm to try and catch you, but their arms felt more like hammers as they collided with your ribs.

"Cloud! What did you do?" Zack jumped to his feet, Cloud's back obscuring his view from seeing what really happened. All he saw was you were yelling at Cloud, moved towards him, then just dropped.

"Get back." Cloud held his arm out to stop Zack from getting near you as Genesis lowered you to the ground. You were out cold and not moving, and Zack fought hard to get around Cloud to see you as Genesis you're your head on his forearm and shook you lightly.

Ven slipped by Cloud as he struggled to restrain Zack, and was kneeling by your side in seconds.

"Ven, what's going on?" Cloud asked through strained breaths as he tried to get Zack under control while still looking over at you.

Ven ignored him and put a hand on your forehead and the other took your pulse from your wrist. 

"Ventus, is she alright?" Genesis asked, looking down you with wide eyes as your head fell to one side when Ven took his hand away from you.

"Well, she's not dead, so that's a positive."

"What!?" Zack wrenched free from Cloud and elbowed his way over to you, only to have Cloud grab him by the shirt and throw him back onto his butt. Zack kicked at Cloud legs as he sat up, and Cloud rounded on Zack and punched him right in the face, hard. Zack reeled and fell back down to the ground, rolling in pain as he held a hand over his face.

"Both of you stop it!" Genesis snapped, getting to his feet to pull them apart so they'd stop distracting Ven, who truth be told wasn't really distracted at all. He was fascinated by what he was seeing as he opened one of your eyelids. Your iris had gone completely red, your pupil was slit like a snakes, and no matter how he moved your head it always seemed to be staring at him, boring into him. He let your eye fall closed and brushed your hair away from your forehead before putting his hands on both sides of your face and charging you full of healing magic. After just a few seconds, your eyes opened and they were your own again.

"Ven?" You blinked, sitting up with his help, "What's..." You stopped, seeing a blur of motion behind him that made you feel dizzy.

"You chose a bad time for a nap." He sighed, standing up and pulling you to your feet, "Come on, I'll get you inside."

He began to pull you towards the door and hurried you in before you could see Cloud fighting with Genesis to get him to leave while Zack continued to hold his face on the ground. You were luckily so disorientated that Ven had no trouble getting you inside and up to your room. He helped you get your head together and made sure you were alright before leaving to go check on Zack and Cloud while you decided to shower.

You seemed to come to your senses a bit more under the warm water, and felt more depressed than you ever had. You tried to have a nice night out despite your illness, and yet it ended up ruining everything. The last thing you remembered was snapping at Cloud after Genesis said he noticed something was wrong with you, and then you proved they were all right to be worried about you by collapsing. Even now, your head was still splitting from the pain coursing through you. Genesis would probably never want to see you ever again, and you vaguely remembered Ven saying something about Zack getting punched out. There was a reason you thought you'd hate going out on a date with anyone, and you just proved yourself so right it was almost painful.

You found Ven sitting on your bed when you came out, flopped down like he was exhausted.

"What's going on?" You asked him, seeing how he didn't look tired like usual, but more like he was annoyed and worn down.

"Oh, nothing. I spent 30 minutes getting lectured by Basch about fighting, but you know. Nothing." He grumbled.

"Who did you fight?"

"No one! But if I had known I'd get in trouble for it anyway, I would have at least punched Zack a little myself."

"What exactly happened?"   
"Well, Basch heard all the yelling, then came out to see what was going on just seconds after I got you out of there. Caught Zack trying to put Genesis in a headlock, and Cloud try to chase them both down the driveway. Then Basch rounded us all up, sat us down and let us have it. Then he told Zack and Genesis to get the fuck out, and said he didn't want to see them near this house for a good long while. I don't know how you think he's not scary. The term 'murder eyes' comes to mind."

"I'm sorry, Venven." You said plopping down next to him.

"Ah, don't be. It's been a long time since anyone other than Lulu's yelled at me. It was beginning to lose its charm."

"This is all my fault." You sighed, throwing your hands up over your head and laying back.

"Yeah. It is." He said, laying back so you were shoulder to shoulder, staring up at the ceiling. "I mean, going out, trying to live a normal life? How could you?"

"Shut up, Ven. That's not what I meant. Cloud wouldn't have been so upset if I hadn't been. But of course I was upset. I'm a stupid betta fish."

"What?" He laughed, looking over at you curiously.

"A be—whatever" You sighed.

"A betta fish?"

"It's something Genesis called me. Because I always want to fight everyone."

He laughed again, harder and rolled his eye as he went back to staring at the ceiling. "Well, he's not wrong."

"God, why am I like this?" You held a hand over your face and sighed heavily. "I can't get close to people. I try to go out on one little date, and end up getting in a fight with half the neighborhood. I don't know what I expected. This kind of thing never ends well for me. I wouldn't have even thought of doing something like this if it wasn't for that stupid dare."

"You've been on terrible dates before?"

"No, not really. I've been asked to go on dates before, but I always say no. I just get this picture in my head...like I can't think of love without also thinking plane crash, tornado, train wreck...And after tonight, I know I'm right."

"No you're not. It'll get better, you'll see." He nudged you reassuringly, but you just glared at him.

"What do you know?" You huffed, and he shrugged.

"Maybe nothing, I don't know. But in my personal experience, people don't really usually love me, you know? People don't just meet me and decided I'm worth their time. Most of the time when I meet someone it's only because they need my help, then after they get it, they leave. But you're different. You bring people together. And you do it like nothing I've ever seen before."

"Yeah...there's no way Genesis would have been caught up in a fight with Cloud and Zack without me having something to do with it."

"That's true. But I'd also never be talking to my brothers. Roxas and Axel would never be friends, the juniors would never be caught dead sitting with the sophomores at lunch. You know, I think Riku has lived next door to this house his whole life, but he'd never even been inside until you moved here. You've got this weird gift for it. I know you feel like you're in a pretty dismal place right now, but knowing you, you'll figure it out. You'll pull something together for yourself, get out of this slump, and be back to rubbing my face in how much better than me you are in no time."

You took in his words in silence, then gave him nudge of your own before sitting up and walking over to your desk to brush your hair, "More people should give you a shot. They're missing out."

"That's what I keep telling people. No one wants to believe me though." He tucked his hands behind his head and closed his eyes like he was about to fall asleep when a knock came at your door and Basch let himself in.

"How are you doing, Muffin?" He asked, looking around for you for a second and shooting Ven a quick glare for being in your bed before he found you at the desk.

"Better. Really, I don't know what happened, but I'm fine now."

"Is she?" He asked Ven, who sat up and sighed before walking over to you and holding a finger in front of your face. His fingertip lit up with white magic and he moved it left and right, up and down, in front of your eyes, then had you look around. When he was satisfied with that, he touched your temples with two fingers on each side, then took your pulse from your neck.

"Slight arrhythmia, maybe..." Ven sighed, "It's hard to tell from pulse alone."

"Arrhythmia? What's that?" You looked between Ven and Basch.

"It means your heartbeat is a little irregular, that's all. Do you have a stethoscope?" Ven asked, looking over his shoulder at Basch, who shook his head. Ven sighed again, "Can I listen to her heart?"

"Of course." Basch shrugged.

"The...old fashioned way..." He cleared his throat as he pointed at his ear sheepishly.

"Oh...I suppose that's...fine, go ahead." Basch said uncomfortably, and Ven turned to you with a faint blush.

"You gonna ask me if that's alright?" You raised an eyebrow at him and he gave you a very tired look, and you noticed his eyes were looked green again.

"I have parental consent, who cares what you want?" He said in a quiet mumble, so Basch couldn't hear.

"Just do what you have to do." You sighed, and he pushed your hair away and over your shoulders as he leaned in. You puffed up your cheeks and let the air out slowly as you looked awkwardly at the ceiling while Ven pressed his ear to your chest.

"Would you breath normally, please?" He scolded, and you sighed again.

You cursed at yourself for not putting a bra on, but after your shower you were just planning on going straight to bed. You skipped the bra and went straight for the oversized t-shirt. You wondered if he could tell, but weren't about to open your mouth and ask with Basch standing right there. The upside was the three of you all seemed to be equally uncomfortable.

"Yeah, it's definitely irregular." He said as he pulled away, careful not to make eye contact with you.

"What does that mean?" You asked, adjusting your shirt and flicking your hair back over your shoulder.

"It means it's irregular." He shrugged.

"Can we do anything about it?" Basch asked him, and you hoped that Ven wouldn't be give one of his stupid repeat answers to him, at least.

"It may be linked to the stigma, in which case...I don't know. We'll need to wait and see. If it's unrelated, it's not really a problem. I mean, you're not experiencing other symptoms, right? No shortness of breath? Dizziness?" He asked you, and you shook your head, "Yeah, so it's nothing to really concern yourselves with. I'll keep tabs on, give it a proper listen tomorrow in my office when I have my equipment, and let you know if anything changes. In the meantime, being unconscious is super bad for you...but if it's just a one off thing, I'm not too worried. Stigma is brutal, and passing out can be the bodies defense mechanism against pain. So, we'll chalk it up to that for now, and look out for it in the future."

"Alright. Thank you." Basch said, and you began to wonder if Ven didn't try to seem extra professional whenever he was around just to make sure Basch took him seriously and didn't throw him out of your room like you all knew he wanted to. "Would you mind terribly taking a look at Cloud? He busted his hand up pretty badly."

"No problem." Ven nodded, and he followed Basch out of the room to go and see Cloud, shutting the door behind him.

Once you were alone, you put a hand over your heart and tried to see if you could feel the irregularity. You didn't really feel anything wrong, but then again you also didn't know anything about hearts, so your opinion probably didn't really matter.

A tap came to your window and you got to open it, expecting to see Riku, then stopped dead at the sight of Zack.

"Oh my god!" You gasped, rushing over to the window to open it and let him in, seeing the stark black discoloration around his left eye from across the room. You held your hands over your mouth and nose in shock as he climbed in the window, his black eye looking even worse up close, "Zack..."

"Don't worry, it barely hurts." He said, seeing the look of horror on your face. It was so unbelievable that you actually laughed.

"Are you kidding me? Have you seen yourself yet?" You gawked at him, feeling like it looked like one of the most painful things you'd ever seen. His eyelid was severely swollen, to the point where you could just barely see the blue of his eye under it.

"Well...no..." He shrugged, "But that's not why I'm here. I had to check on you. Make sure you're okay, you know?" He was saying as you walked up to him and turned his face to the side so you could get a better look at it.

"I'm fine, Ven put me back together in seconds. You know, speaking of Ven, I'm just gonna get him—" You began to make for the door, but he quickly put his hands on your shoulders to stop you.

"No! If Basch catches me here he's gonna flay me."

"...Zack..." You inhaled sharply at the sight of the painful looking cuts where Cloud's knuckles tore Zack skin along his brow bone. It was no wonder Basch wanted Ven to go look at Cloud's hand. If it was even half as messed up as Zack's face it would need immediate medical attention.  

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, what happened to you out there? And why was Ven just giving you a big medical examination?"

"Oh, you saw that huh?" You sighed, and he gave you a look, "I have..." You paused, swallowing hard before looking at the ground and deciding not to tell him the full truth, "I have a heart arrhythmia."

"A...a what? What does that mean?" He shrugged curelessly, and you shook your head.

"Never mind that, it's under control now. What about you? I think you needed a doctor, you might have a concussion." You took him by the arm and led him over to the mirror in your closet so he could see it for himself.

"Oh, shit..." He mumbled, looking into the mirror as he gingerly tapped his fingers around the bruised skin around his eye, "It looks bad, doesn't it?"

"It's not great." You shrugged, leaning against the wall behind him so you could see into the mirror over his shoulder.

"So...my mom is probably going to notice this, huh?"

"I think there is a chance she might."

"Are you mad at me?" He turned around, looking so sorry it made you forget for a second that you were.

"For what?"

"For...I don't know, everything? Ruining the end of your date, fighting with you brother, giving your parents more to worry about when they should be focusing on you. For...always being in your way..."

"Of course I'm not mad at you. If I'm mad at anyone, it's myself. Now come here, that looks like it really hurts."

"Not really." He said in a low voice with a weak shrug, not meeting your eye. You walked over to him and put a hand up to his cheek gently so you could turn his face towards the light and get a better look at it, but he was too tall for you to really see anything. You took his arm and pulled him over to your bed and sat him down before putting your hand under his jaw to angle his face. His eye was nearly stuck shut from the swelling, but you could faintly see the white of his eye and got a look how red and bloodshot it was. There was dry blood running from his eyebrow down onto his puffy eyelid, and the whole area around his eye, from his noes to his temple, was solidly black and blue, "Oh god, Zack..."

"It really doesn't hurt." He shrugged, sniffling a little bit and continuing to avoid your gaze.

"Of course it does, you got punched in the face." You bit your cheek a little as you focused some ice magic into your fingers and touched them lightly against brow bone. He winced a little and made a face for a second, but ultimately he leaned into your hand as he realized what you were doing, "Did you hit him back?"

"Of course not...I mean I wanted to, sure, but...I would never." His hand clenched into a fist on his knee, but he let it go, "He's my best friend, I hate fighting with him."

"I can't believe he did this to you. I'll go punch him for you."

"Don't, he was just scared."

"Genesis was scared too; he didn't hit anyone." You rolled your eyes.

"You're right, he didn't. God, how can you put up with someone who is that perfect?" Zack scoffed, and you pressed hand against his brow a little harder, causing him to wince and apologize.

"I'm gonna get Ven now."

"No, wait, please...I'm sorry. If you like him, that's great. At least we all know he'll be nice to you and treat you well. Really, it's great, and I'm happy for you. I won't...you know...butt in or screw things up for you anymore." He sighed, looking at his hands on his knees with an expression that you could only describe as defeated.

"I don't like him." You admitted, then shrugged, "Well, I don't know. Maybe I do. Who knows? My heart doesn't work right...literally. I'm not ready for a relationship. I'm dealing with too much. And I'm not even trying to dealing with everything I should be."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, the other day, Roxas asked me about my dad—about my real dad—and my first instinct was just to say he was dead rather than telling him the truth, because I hate him so much. But...if I really hated him, why would I care if Roxas knew the truth? It wouldn't matter to me if I did really hate him. While I know he did terrible things, and he sits in my heart like a black spot that I can't even talk about him without shaking in anger...I don't remember the bad times. I deeply, deeply despise him, but my only memories of him are of...Sunday mornings, when he would make me crepes and cut the strawberries himself. Or when he taught me how to ride a bike, and spent all day running along beside me, holding the seat, because I was too scared for him to let go. He is a monster and I know I hate him, but somewhere deep down, in the weakest part of me, I still love him. Even when I know I shouldn't. If I can't sort myself out about someone I should so obviously hate, why would I even begin to think I could—"

Your door opened and Ven walked in, then stopped short at the sight of Zack in your room. He quickly shut the door behind him and then made a face, "Yeesh, Fair, that's not a good look for you."

"Can you get out? We're having a moment here." Zack glared at him despite the pain it caused him to change his expression.

"No. No, go...go fix him. I need to...brush my teeth." You ran a hand through your hair as you got up and made for your bathroom, even though you had already brushed your teeth after getting out of the shower. You disappeared behind your bathroom door and rested against it for support as you looked at yourself in the mirror. Of course you looked like you were on the verge of tears again. That was just becoming your normal look.

"She okay?" You heard Ven asking Zack, but you decided you didn't want to hear his answer and instead turned on the hairdryer. All the time you had been spending alone was making you think too much, about things you really didn't want to be thinking about.

By the time you had calmed down, finished drying your hair, and returned to your room, Zack looked like a different person. But not a healed person.

"Ventus...what the fuck?" You sighed, seeing that Ven was playing in your makeup and was dabbing bronzer under Zack's eye, thinking it was concealer.

"Shh, the maestro is at work." He shushed you, taking an eyeliner pencil and using it on Zack's eyebrow like it was a crayon.

"Doesn't that hurt?" You asked Zack, who wasn't so much as flinching despite Ven's less than gentle...technique.

"No." Zack shrugged.

"I at least had the decency to numb him up first." Ven shook his head at you like he thought you were stupid to even ask.

"Could you have the decency to fix his face?" You walked up, thinking Zack looked worse now than he did before.   
"I am."

"Zack, why are you letting him do this."

"He said he'd make it better."

"He's not."

"Aw, you don't like it?" Ven deflated, "Even with the mascara?"

"He can barely open his eye, and you're putting mascara on it?" You glared at him, then noticed the tube he was using and snatched it away from him, "My  _good_  mascara?"

"Oh please, like it's not all the same goop."

"I'm going to turn you into goop." You threatened, but he just ignored you and picked up a lipstick.

"How's that gonna help my eye?" Zack stopped Ven by grabbing his hand, giving him a sour look that just looked ridiculous with his face all painted up like it was.

"You gotta let me finish the look." Ven shrugged, and you hit him in the back of the head.

"That's it, fix him or I'll give you a matching black eye."

"You Strifes are punch happy tonight." Ven sat back from your makeup bag and shot you a smirk, which you scoffed at as you went back to the bathroom to get Zack some makeup removing wipes. While you did that, Ven put a hand over the whole of the left side of Zack's face, like he didn't really want to touch him or bother with healing him so he just slapped his hand down.

"How come you're all nice a gentle when your healing ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, but couldn't give less of a shit with me?" Zack grumbled, and you had a hard time understanding him as he tried to talk with Ven's hand half over his mouth.

"Because, her face is never bloody, swollen, and sticky." He sighed, looking like he wished he was doing anything else besides holding Zack's face in his hand, "Besides, the day I start lovingly cupping your cheek is the day I'd like you to just knee me as hard as you possibly can in the—"

"Good lord Venven, there's nothing wrong with a little manly, bro-to-bro cheek cupping." Zack rolled his eyes, which you could see better now as the swelling in his eye began to drastically decrease.

"He's only sticky because you used too much foundation there, ace." You added, sitting down on your bed next to him and watching him work while admiring Zack's makeup with a disgusted look on your face. There was so much liquid foundation on Zack—which was the complete wrong shade for him—that it gave him a shiny, wet look.

"Well, you won't let me practice on you." Ven replied, though quietly and sounding a bit distracted, like he was actually focusing on what he was doing.

"Practice on yourself." You huffed, pushing him aside lightly so you could free up the corner of your blanket he was sitting on and tucking yourself into bed.

"How hard did he hit you?" Ven mumbled, making a face as he moved his hand around to the back of Zack's head.

"Hard enough. Let's just say he wasn't holding back." Zack sighed, and you watched Ven curiously.

"He cracked your damn skull, Fair. How are you up here clowning around?" Ven asked, putting both hands around Zack's head.

"I don't know. It's not the first time I've been punched in the face."

"Won't be the last, I'm sure." Ven mumbled, his hands lighting up slightly as he focused more magic into them, then after a few moments he stopped and pulled his hands back, taking a makeup wipe and rubbing down his hands, "Okay, we'll you should be all good now. Let me know if it still hurts tomorrow."

"Yeah, alright. Thanks Vennybear." Zack said, feeling his face, then blinking aggressively to test if his face was back to normal. "Think my mom will notice now?" He asked, and you and Ven looked at each other. You sat up in bed and handed Zack the makeup wipes. He scrubbed at his face for a few minutes while you got all cozy in bed, but it didn't look like it was coming off. Ven just put too much on. "≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, do you have real stuff to take this off?"

"Yeah, on the counter in the bathroom. It's in the blue blottle." You said, hugging your pillow. Zack got up and made his way into your bathroom, and Ven pulled the blankets up over your shoulder.

"Do you want me to put you out, or are you okay?" He asked quietly to make sure Zack couldn't hear.

"I'm okay." You shrugged, thinking you probably made him use more magic than usual today, and he had to take care of Zack and Cloud as well.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, what's this pink, rosy smelling stuff?" Zack called form the bathroom.

"It's toner." You called back.

"Oh...what's toner?" He asked, and you rolled your eyes.

"Okay. I'm gonna go hide in the kitchen until Zack leaves. Want anything?"

"No, I think I just want to go to sleep."

"Alright, goodnight."

"Night." You rolled over, and he made his way out of the room. Zack came back in a few minutes, his face clean and back to normal, but you were pretending to be asleep so he just left through the window as quietly as he could. You sent Ven a text saying it was safe to come back, then went back to pretending you were asleep as he came in and got his sleeping bag out from under your bed and set it up. He got it set up, got settled in, and then fell quiet, but somehow you knew he wasn't sleeping either.

∞

You were thinking too much again. About today, about your parents, about your illness. Everything was always too much. You just wanted to be normal.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Ven called out quietly.

"What?" You sighed.

"I have to tell Lulu."

"Tell her what?" You propped up on your elbows and looked over the edge of your bed at him. He was sitting with his hands folded behind his head, staring at the ceiling.

"About what happened on the porch."

"Why?"

"Something about it..." He paused, looking like he didn't know how to phrase what he wanted to say, "...it wasn't normal. It wasn't you."

"What are you talking about?" You sat up, and he did too.

"When you collapsed, I...I don't know. Your eyes...it was like it wasn't you anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"I just need to tell her. If there's something going on with you, like...you don't always have full control over yourself, or—"

"Ven, there's nothing like that going on."

"You won't always know when it's happening, and maybe—"

"Ven...why are your eyes green sometimes?" You asked, thinking you might know why he seemed so worried about this.

"...They're not..."

"They were today." You scoffed, "While you were helping me get ready, after the med check with Basch," You grabbed your phone and put on the light and shined it in his face, causing him to groan and hold his hand over his face, "I'm surprised they're blue now."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, please..." He laid back down, sighing heavily.

"Fine, tell her. But first, tell me. What's going on with you? Why do I get the feeling you're projecting your problems onto me?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"What? Come on! I tell you everything."

"Only because you have to." He grumbled, rolling over so his back was to you.

"That's not true."

"Sure it's not."   
"Ven!" You threw your pillow at him, and it bounced off his head

"What?" He snapped.

"Don't be an asshole."

"I'm not! You're the one throwing pillows."

"You're unbelievable. Tell Lulu. I don't care." You got to your feet and stormed over to the window, opening it up and sticking a leg out before turning back to him, "And for the record, I tell you things because you're my friend, and I trust you. Though why I do is beyond me." You glared at him good and hard before fulling climbing out of the window and shutting it behind you.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈! ≈≈≈≈≈≈ get back here!" Ven got up to go after you, but he got to the window just in time to see you closing and locking the window to Riku's room and pulling the curtains shut behind you. "Goddamnit..." He sighed, leaning against the window frame and staring at Riku's dark blue curtains, for a couple of minutes before skulking back to his sleeping bag.

You meanwhile peeked through the curtains and waited for Ven to walk back into your room and hopefully go to sleep before you took a step down from the windowsill and into Riku's room. It was completely dark in there, and because his bed pushed up sideways against the wall, when you stepped down you accidentally stepped on some part of Riku.

"Ow!" He shot upright, pulling his leg out from under you and causing you to fall down on top of him. You gasped and threw your hands out to try and catch yourself and tried your hardest not to knee him as you dropped. Your hands landed on his chest and you pushed him back into a laying position as you fell, but at least you didn't knee him. His hands found your waist, and for a second you felt him lift you off of him and thought he was about literally throw you across the room.

"Riku! Riku it's me!" You said quickly when you dug your nails into his shoulders to make sure you could hold on in case he did try and throw you.

"Wh—≈≈≈≈≈≈?" He stopped let his elbows drop back to the bed, but still kept his hands around your waist as you lurched forward when he dropped you.

"What the hell!" You snapped, needing to straddle his hips to keep yourself upright so you weren't laying on him anymore than you already were.

"I thought you were...I don't know, a burglar or something! What are you doing here?"

"I just came to—I didn't think you'd be asleep yet!"

"What do you think window shut, lights out, curtains drawn means?" He huffed at you as he reached off the side of the bed for something or another.

"I don't know! Maybe that you weren't home?"

"Where else would I be?" He grumbled, and his phone suddenly lit up on the nightstand and illuminated the room, revealing that he was shirtless and glaring at you.

"With Sora and Roxas maybe? Hey..." You looked at his bare chest with a slight grimace on your face, "You don't sleep naked, right?"

"No!" He snapped at you, "Now would you get off of me?" He put his hands around your waist again and pushed you off him so you were sitting between him and the wall on the bed before he got up and walked across the room to turn on the light. You were pleased to see he had gray sweatpants on, then found yourself looking at the red marks on his shoulders and realized they were from your nails.

"Ooo, sorry about that." You mumbled, and he looked at you like he didn't know what you were talking about, then when you pointed to your shoulders. He looked over at his shoulder, then rolled his eyes.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈..." He sighed.

"What, I thought you were going to throw me." You shrugged, trying your hardest to keep eye contact with him and not look down at his nicely toned, muscular stomach and arms.

"I was! You're lucky I didn't punch you." He shot back, sitting in his desk chair and crossing his arms over his chest so he could look really pissy while he glared at you.

"I'm sorry. I didn't hurt you when I stepped on you, right?" You asked, and he blinked at you dryly.

"What are you doing?"

"Apologizing?" You looked at him curiously.

"Since when?" His suspicion was palpable.

"What do you mean?"

"You bulldoze your way in here no explanation, fall on me, scratch me up, make fun of me, and now you're apologizing?"

"Why is that so weird to you?" You shook your head, thinking he was unbelievable right now.

"Because, you normally do way more damage before you even think of apologizing."

"That's not—pfft, I don't...whatever." You crossed your arms now, rolling your eyes. You caught sight of a t-shirt at the foot of his bed, and chucked it at him, "And put a shirt on, please."

"Why, you suddenly have boundaries? Are you forgetting who barged into whose bedroom?" He asked, but put the shirt on anyway, smirking slightly all the way. "So why are you here in the dead of night, anyway?"

You ran a hand through your hair and sighed, "I don't know. It's been a crazy night."

"It's a Wednesday, how crazy could it have been?" He laughed, but you didn't laugh with him or crack a smile. Instead you just stared at your hands absently, like you were thinking too much. "≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?"

You snapped out of it and cleared your throat, "Sorry I woke you up, I'll just go—" You began to get to your knees, but he got up and moved over to the bed so he was sitting beside you.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing." You shook your head, but he gave you a look and refused to say anything until you went on, "It's a long story. I was..." You paused and held a hand over your face, "I can't believe I'm telling you this. When I got back from dinner with Genesis, a fight broke out on my front porch between Zack and Cloud, Cloud gave him a black eye, and then Genesis got involved, Ven was called over to fix everyone up, while he was checking on me he found that I have a heart problem, then Basch asked him stay the night to monitor me, but I got in a fight with Ven and I'm scared I might just end up giving him a black eye if I have to sit in that room with him another minute longer while he's being an ass. So, I came over here...but, I don't know what I was thinking. I'm just gonna have to go back over there eventually. I shouldn't have dragged you into it. I'll just go now..."

You tried to get up again, but he put a hand on your arm to stop you, "You have a heart problem?" His voice was suddenly very low, and his face lost all track of any smirk or grin.

"It's not serious, don't worry...it's just beating wrong, or something. Ven said it was an arrhythmia, but that it really wasn't anything to be concerned about." You said quickly, hating that look on his face.

"If it's not serious than why did Basch want him to monitor you?" He asked, and you froze.

"He's just...worried."

"About what?"

You bit your cheek, trying to come up with anything else to tell him besides the truth, but nothing was coming to you, "Goodnight." You said casually, getting up despite the hand he still had on your arm and tried to pull the window up, but you forgot that you had locked it after coming in. You reached up to unlock it, but he got there first and put his hand over the lock to stop you.

"You can trust me, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. Just tell me what's going on, you're making me nervous."

You hung your head and closed your eyes as you dropped your hand from the window, "You can't tell anyone. Very few people know, and I don't...just promise me—"

"I would never." He said, looking you dead in the eye and sounding like he had never taken anything so seriously in his life.

"That's what Cloud said—" You mumbled, glancing around nervously, but he took your hands and made you look at him.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, I would _never_. Just trust me, I won't let you down."

"Alright...Basch isn't really worried about the arrhythmia, and it's not why Ven's sleeping in my room...well, it is, but only because it might be a side effect of my...geostigma..." You exhaled heavily, playing with the ends of the curtains so you wouldn't have to look at him. You didn't have to. It was always the same, wide-eyed, open mouthed, sorrowful look. You could feel him giving you that look now.

"Are you being serious right now?" He finally said.

"Please don't tell anyone." You were sure telling him was the right thing to do at the time, but now you were starting to feel a lump for in your throat as he continued to look at you with a pained expression

"No, no of course I won't...≈≈≈≈≈≈ how long have you had it?"

"I'm uh...not really sure, honestly. Little signs have been there for a while, but Lulu was able to confirm that's what it is just this...this Sunday." You felt your hands beginning to shake despite all the work you were doing trying to keep your voice from wavering and your eyes from watering.

"Oh god, so you...just found out?"

"Yup..." You tried to smile, but that was the breaking point. You still couldn't talk about it without it somehow making it feel more real than the actual pain it caused you to have it. Something about knowing that other people knew something was seriously wrong with you just cracked you inside. You held your hands over your eyes and tried to hide your face as watering eyes turned to full-fledged tears.

"Hey, don't cry." He put an arm around you and turned your head into his shoulder, "It's okay." You clenched your hands in the soft fabric of his t-shirt as he hugged his arms around you and stroked your hair.

"It's so far from okay." You shook your head and he gave you a tight squeeze before pulling a soft, fuzzy blanket up over your shoulders.

"Lay down." He told you, getting up and walking over to the light switch and flicking it off before rejoining you on the bed, "You can sleep here tonight."

"Thank you." You wiped your eyes with the back of your wrists as he pulled the sheets up around you both and settled in beside you. He held an arm out for you and you skooched over so you could rest your head in the crook of his chest and shoulder while his arm tucked around your shoulders. He might not have been able to heal you, but damn if it didn't feel nice to be wrapped up in the arms of someone who cared about you and about what was happening to you. While it wasn't quite as instantly effective as Ven knocking you out with his magic, you found yourself falling asleep relatively quickly as you listened to the sound of Riku's steady breathing. 

 **∞**     

**Chocobuck Hunters:**

**•Your main question (an answer that's on the right track will receive $5 chocobucks): What do you think happened to ≈≈≈≈≈≈ on the porch? Ven seems to think someone was trying to take control of ≈≈≈≈≈≈. What do _you_  think?**

**•Next, I am compiling a list of headcanons and Q/A type things for a side-chapter devoted to trying to explain some things about this story and its Original version. If you have any story/character questions or headcanon questions you'd like to ask–about this version or the original–leave it in a comment below. If I like your question and decide to use it in the side-chapter, I'll give you a buck! ($1 per question I choose, so if you ask 10 questions and I like all 10, you get $10 bucks.)**

**•Also, any comment that's over 250 characters long will automatically get a free chocobuck. What can I say, I'm a suck for a nice long comment.**

 

_**(I hope you guys are keeping track of how many chocobucks you all have, because I sure as shit am not.)** _

 


	10. Chapter 10

 

***Walks in two months late with Strabucks in my hand* Oh, I'm sorry, were you guys waiting for this?**

**Chocobuck hunters! There's a couple hidden things to look out for in the chapter for some bucks, so I'll give you the list now instead of at the end:**

**• Find the 21 Pilots song lyrics for $5.**

**•Find the Community  references for $2 each, or $5 for both. There are related, so you should be able to get both even though they aren't located together.** **  
**

**•Find the House MD reference for $5.** **  
**

**•Find the Arrested Development reference for $5.** **  
**

**•Find the Avengers reference...it's super obvious, frankly I'll be offended if you don't get it right away. $1** **  
**

**•And as always (or what I will now be making a tradition here if I haven't already), when you're done reading if you leave a comment that is more than 500 characters you get a $5 chocobuck bonus, and you get $1 buck for every spelling/grammar mistake you point out, because I haven't been using an editor lately and can never seem to get them all on my own.**

**•Oh, and uh...vote for Hil** **lar** **y and I'll give you $10 bucks for free. Pls. Guys. PLEASE! _VOTE._** **  
**

 

**∞**

**Chapter 10**

**∞**

Riku woke up sometime before his alarm was supposed to go off, and just found himself staring at your sleeping frame. When you fell asleep you were close to him and had been resting your head on his chest, but you wiggled and turned all night long until you got to where you were now, curled up in a ball facing the wall. If it had been any other day, he would have just thought maybe you were a finicky sleeper, but no. He knew better now. You had geostigma, and he knew what that meant. His father had geostigma, and even though he left Riku and his mother years ago, Riku could still remember clearly how it affected his father. The constant pain that sent his father into terrible fits of rage, the days when it made him so weak he couldn't even get out of bed, and the terrible dreams that kept him awake most nights. He knew you wouldn't be able to hide it for long, even if you were fighting as hard as you could to keep any symptoms from showing.  

He rolled over onto his side and put his arm around you, wishing there was something he could do to try and help you or make it so you didn't have to live with this. You snuggled back into him, unconsciously seeking the comfort, and he sighed as he hugged you closer to his chest. There was nothing he could do. Momentary comfort was the best he could offer. Part of him wanted to believe this was some cruel joke you were playing, but he could feel the tremors that shook through you and see your expression change from peaceful to pained despite you being dead asleep, and knew that it was true. Someone he cared about had geostigma. Again. It was all happening again, and there was nothing he could do about it.

**∞**

You woke up to a chiming phone, but it wasn't any alarm sound you had ever heard before. You sighed and nestled back into the blankets, think you were far too comfortable and warm to get up for school. You thought that maybe you would just stay home from school today, but then the bed moved and the alarm turned off.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Riku whispered, shaking your shoulder. You meant to grumble 'go away' but it sounded more like a fussy growl than anything. Then it hit you that Riku was talking to you first thing in the morning, and you realized why the blankets felt more comfortable than usual.

"What time is it?" You sat upright groggily, looking around and blinking tiredly. You needed to get back to your room before Cloud came in to wake you up.

"6:15." He replied, yawning and running a hand through his messy silver hair. 

"6:15? Ew! Why do you get up at 6:15?" You groaned, laying back down tiredly. Cloud wouldn't be in to get you up for at least another hour.

"I have to do homework." He sighed, lazily throwing the blankets off himself and onto you, making a big pile of them on top of you before getting out of bed, "You're lucky, some days I get up at 5:30 if I have a lot to do."

"Ewwwwww!" You whined, thinking that was the most abhorrent thing you'd ever heard. "Why don't you do it after school, or at night like a normal person?"

"Because I have Blitz after school when all of you do your homework, then because you guys are all done you wanna hang out so I can't do it then."

"So you do it in the _morning_? Aren't you tired?" You sounded so disgusted he couldn't help but to laugh.

"That's my secret, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. I'm always tired." He shook his head at your bewildered expression, then sat down at his desk before grabbing his backpack, "Go back to sleep, I'll get you up at 7:00." You shot him a look from over the mound of blankets on you and he rolled eyes, "Make that 7:15..." He corrected. 

You sighed contently, letting your head flop back down on the pillow and snuggling into the blankets again. You dozed in and out of sleep for a while, listening to the sounds of a pencil scratching across a paper and tapping on a calculator, but it didn't bother you until he started typing at his laptop. He was a fast, aggressive typer, and you couldn't ignore the clacking of the keys any longer.

"Are there ants in your keyboard? It sounds like you're trying to kill them." You asked, yawning as you sat up in bed and stretched your arms over your head happily, feeling like you were much more rested than you would have considering the night you had.

"What?" He looked back at you over his shoulder with an amused smile. His hair was still ruffled and messy and fell in his eyes, but you could still clearly see the blue and green of them as he smirked at you. 

"You type so,  _so_ , loudly." 

"Well, there goes any chances of us living together." He laughed, and you could tell he was rolling his eyes at you again even though he had returned his attention to his computer.

"Oh don't say that, this is the nicest pillow I've ever felt." You sighed contently as you took the pillow you had been using last night and hugged it in your arms as you sat cross legged in bed. You were done sleeping, but not quite ready to get up yet.

"Yeah? Well don't drool on it."

"Excuse you, I do not drool." You deadpanned, and he scoffed.

"I have the stain on my shirt to prove it." He didn't bother looking back at you before shooting back that comment. 

"Well, aren't you happy I made you put one on then?" You shot back, pretending like you weren't mortified. You flushed, but luckily his back was to you so he couldn't see that.

"I was kidding, Midgar." He gave you a look over his shoulder, and you let your chin fall into the pillow you were holding so it covered a good bit of your face as you hugged it into your chest.

"Oh..." You mumbled, and he turned around in his chair to laugh at you as you sank further into the pillow. "Shut up."

"I didn't say anything." He shrugged, turning around in his chair since he really wasn't focusing on his work at the moment anyway.

"Shut up!"

"I didn't—" Riku sighed, then broke into a small smile as you continued to glare at him, "Good morning."

You ran a hand through your hair and gave him a suspicious look as you replied in a small voice, "...Good morning..."

"I'll go make coffee. Try not to glare a hole in my wall while I'm gone." He got to his feet and made for the door, then stopped as his hand reached the handle and looked back at you, "How are you feeling today, anyway?"

"Don't do that." You said, any trace of playfulness gone from your tone.

"Don't do what?" He froze, his eyes baring into you with newfound sympathy that made you shiver with discomfort.  

"Please don't look at me like that." You sighed, seeing that he was looking at you like he felt sorry for you, "It makes me feel like a freak."

"I'm not...I don't think any less of you, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. I just want to know that you're all in one piece." He began, but you dropped your gaze to the blankets around you so you at least didn't have to look at him while he pitied you. "You know...my father had geostigma, I know what it does to people. How much it hurts people."

"What?" You gaped at him, having never heard a word about his father until now.

"Nothing...just...forget it. I'll be right back." He looked away from you and opened the door quickly, like he was burning to leave the room now, but before he could leave you spoke up.

"Riku...I'm okay. I promise." You assured him.

"Thank you." He gave a weak smile, then left the room to go make coffee.

You decided that in the meantime, you'd go back to your room to get dressed. You got up and made your way out the window and back across the tree to your window, only to find it was locked. "Ven..." You sighed, thinking he must have done this on purpose. Now you had to talk to him if you wanted to get back in the room.

"Ven, open up." You tapped on the window before cupping your hands to your eyes and looking inside. He was in your bed, and dead asleep. "Ven!" You slapped your hand against the wall beside your window, thinking the amount of force you'd need to wake him up would probably break the glass. After a few good minutes of pounding on the wall, he finally began to stir. He sat up and looked groggily around while you drummed your nails on the window. He suddenly remembered what was going on and sprang to his feet.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, before you yell at me—" He began when he got to the window, knowing you could hear him well enough through the glass. 

"I'm not going to yell at you." You cut him off, just wanting to get inside and put this whole thing behind you. 

"I just want you to know—you're not?" He was obviously still half-asleep, so it took him a minute to process what you had said. 

"No, just let me in." You sighed, and he looked around like he was very confused.

"...Promise?"

"Ven!" You slapped a hand against the glass, freezing out in the chilly morning air in nothing but your t-shirt, sleeping shorts, and socks. It didn't help that it was extra windy up in the tree.

"Alright, alright." He quickly clicked up the lock and slid the window open, then held out an arm to help you get inside, "I just wanted to apologize for last night. I know it's not fair that I keep things from you, especially when you might be going through the same thing...but I just don't think I can tell you. I'm really sorry."

"It's alright, I understand." You sighed, grabbing his forearm so you could balance yourself using him. You didn't need his help, but since he was offering you weren't one to turn down free help. His fingers wrapped around your forearm as well to be sure he had a good grip on you, but then you noticed the sorry look on his face so you went on, "Really, I get it. Some things are hard to live with, and even harder to talk about. You're not ready to talk about it, I should respect that." You said as you let him help you get inside. You couldn't help but notice his eyes were green at this very moment, but decided that you'd keep your mouth shut.

"I do trust you, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. It's not that I don't want to tell you. It's just...I've never actually talked about it with anyone. I mean, Lulu knows, but we don't talk about it." He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck, "It has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me, you have to understand that."

"I get it. And I don't want to fight with you." You said, and he held his arms out for you to hug him. You stepped forwards into his arms, and gave him a good squeeze to show there were no hard feelings about the fight you had last night, even though you still felt the sting of him not wanting to tell you what was going on with him. It was funny, but you could've have sworn you weren't feeling any healing magic coming from him at all.

"You're my closest friend, you know that?" He said, one of his hands moving from hugging you around your back to your cheek as he pulled back enough that he could look at you. You tried to restrain your gasp as you looked up and were met with deep golden eyes. His fingers traced your jaw, and he began to lean in like he was about to kiss you.

"Ven?" You craned your neck back to keep the same amount of distance between your faces as he leaned in, unable to tear your eyes away from the golden irises, "Is everything alright?" You put your hands on his shoulders to try and hint for him to keep some distance.

"Of course. What's the matter with you?" His voice sounded different to you, and you decided you were right in thinking you weren't talking to Ven anymore.

"Nothing. I just have to pee." You pulled away and pushed passed him, to the bathroom. As soon as you got in there, you locked the door behind you and held a hand over your heart. It was beating rapidly even though you felt relatively calm. You had your suspicions that something was wrong with Ven, that the reason why his eyes changed color was because there was something else within him that would peer out from time to time, watching from behind his eyes. You felt like that strange encounter just confirmed the theory, and you got the feeling you just met Ven's intruder.

You looked around the bathroom for anything to help you out, but your phone was out in your room with 'Ven,' and the window in the bathroom didn't open enough for you to get out of it without breaking it. It was the kind of window that opened out towards you and only opened in a small wedge, but you couldn't break it no matter how hard you pulled at it. You looked around again, but there was nothing. You flushed the toilet and then ran the sink for a second to make it seem like you actually were just peeing, then returned to the bedroom to grab your phone. You were planning on grabbing it and making a break for Cloud's room, but 'Ven' was standing over at the bookcase right next to the door.

"So, what are you—why are you staring at me like that?" He put his hands in his pockets and leaned against the bookshelf. He was smirking, but also seemed a little suspicious of you as soon as he looked back at you and saw you freeze up, staring at him cautiously.

"No reason." You shrugged, quickly turning to take your phone off the nightstand causally, pretending like you were just going for it as an excuse to stop looking at him. Really, you were desperately searching through your contacts for Lulu. Aqua's name was one of the first to appear on the list, so you decided she was good enough.

"That so?" He asked, and his voice sent shivers through you. He wasn't doing anything really, but something about knowing that he was pretending to be Ven when he so clearly wasn't just struck uneasiness through you.

"Fine. I was looking at your bedhead." You replied, shooting him a snarky look for a second before returning to your phone to continue typing out your message  _'Something's wrong with Ven, please come. Use window.'_

"Who are you texting this early?" He asked, walking overlooking only mildly curious.

"Roxas is asking about our English homework. Guess you're not the only lazy one in the family after all." You dropped your phone on your bed, and turned to face him keeping that snarky look on your face that you would typical wear when talking to Ven. You weren't sure what was going on, or what this intruder was capable of, but as long as he was still pretending to be Ven and thought you were buying it, he seemed to be harmless.

"Whatever. It's not like you're one to talk. Just look at your hair." He teased, reaching a hand up to brush some hair out of your face.

"What's wrong with my hair?" You scoffed, knocking his hand away before he could touch you.

"Nothing. It's just messy in the mornings. I like it when it's messy." He got a hazy look in his golden eyes, and took a step closer to you. You took a step back.

"Why, gives you something to make fun of?" You shot back defiantly, but he just took another step towards you. You tried to step back again as well, but your back hit the wall.

"No," he put a hand on the wall beside your head, "it just looks nice on you."

"Are you...flirting with me?" You gave your last ditch effort, thinking asking him that might snap him out of it and bring Ven back, since Ven never seemed interested in flirting unless he was joking around.

"If you have to ask, I'm not doing a very good job." He leaned in and you turned your face to the side to stop him from kissing you, but he just placed a kiss on your neck instead.

"Hey..." You tried to side-step away from him and he put his other arm up without even looking, continuing to kiss your neck. His tongue slid across your skin your eyes widened, "Ven, sto-"

"I'm not Ven." He said in a low raspy voice, letting you feel his warm breath on your neck before he bit down, hard. You lost it. You jabbed your palms into his chest and pushed him back, then got ready to kick him in the stomach to knock him back on his butt so you could run out of the room, but he was frozen. There was no ice on him, or any sign of anything else that might be binding him but he was stuck completely still, half balanced on one foot with his arms stopped mid-swing for balance when you shoved him. It was clearly some kind of magic, because he was at such an angle that there was no way he wouldn't fall over if there wasn't something physically keeping him up. "Oh god, what did I do?" You mumbled to yourself, thinking you thought your hands felt weird when you pushed him. You hovered your hand over his shoulder, not sure if you should help get him on two feet again, when you heard the window slide open.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈? What's going on?" Aqua asked as she hurried into the room.

"It's Ven, he—I don't know! His eyes went yellow, he was acting weird, and I pushed him, then he got stuck like that!" It was pretty easy to see you were near panicking.

She rushed over to the two of you and looked at Ven's face and eyes before turning to you and saying very calmly, "It's okay. He's okay. I'm just going to knock him out—painlessly—and get him to Lulu. She knows how to get him back to normal."

"Wait—what's wrong with him?" You asked, watching as she touched his temple.

"It's nothing, really, he just gets like this sometimes. Now, I'm going to need you to break your stop spell over him, and I'm going to call Terra to help me get him out of here." She said, pulling out her phone.

"Stop spell? I don't know how to do that, and I don't know how to undo it!" You looked at Ven helplessly, shaking your head.

"Okay, calm down. We'll fix this. Everything's fine, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." She said in that soothing tone of hers that made you really believe her. You nodded and tried to force yourself to take some deep breaths while she finished up on the phone with Terra, all the while staring into the frozen, unblinking golden eyes that were fixed on the ceiling.

∞

In the next twenty minutes, Aqua had talked you through stop spells and force magic, and you figured out enough to break your hold over Ven just as Terra got there. Ven fell to the ground like a bag of bricks as you broke your spell, still completely knocked out from whatever Aqua did to him, then Terra threw him over his shoulder and they left the room. You got changed into your uniform, running over the morning's events again and again in your head, until Cloud came into the room still looking half asleep.

"Hey, you're up. Tifa made toast." He said, walking over to your bed with a plate of jelly covered toast, and letting the plate rest on his stomach as he flopped down into your bed lazily. Morning Cloud kind of moved from one vertical position to another. You sometimes wondered if he actually got out of bed to change into his uniform, or if he just started changing while still laying down.

"Must be nice to have such a loving wakeup." You shot him some side-eye as he took a nibble out of one of the pieces of toast. If your stigma was good for anything, it helped you learn to act like you were perfectly fine and normal even after the most startling events.

"Oh, it is. She gives me kissies on the forehead until I wake up, then she presents the toast." He smirked, and you had to steal the plate away from him to stop him eating it all.

"Thanks for telling me. Now one of these days you'll be getting your forehead kissies from Zack." You said through a bite of toast, and Cloud laughed at your threat for a moment before sighing, and you turned to him to ask "Have you spoken to him since last night?" You gazed down at his hand timidly, remembering the shape Cloud's knuckles warped Zack's skull into.

"No, but I'll apologize today. Ven fixed him up, right?" There was real concern hidden under his fairly casual tone. It was sweet how much they cared about one another, but were too stubborn to ever say anything about it to each other. Boys, you thought, fighting the urge to roll your eyes. 

"Yeah, Ven took care of it."

"Where is Ven anyway?" Cloud looked around, seeing the empty sleeping bag on the ground and no Ven in sight.

"He went to his place for a bit. Said he needed to do laundry." You shrugged. You were beginning to feel like a bit of a sociopath, the way you were able to just spit out lies casually. 

"Oh...you know you can tell him he can do his laundry here, right?"

"If we told him that, he'd never leave." You shrugged, thinking he already helped himself to your meals and shower—which would have been fine by you if you hadn't caught him using up all your deep conditioner hair masks.

"Look, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈...I wanted to apologize about last night to you, too. Things got really out of hand." Cloud got a sheepish look on his face and tried to avoid your gaze by taking another piece of toast. 

"It's okay. You were right to be worried about me. I shouldn't have been trying to fight you on it." You said in a light tone, meaning it wholeheartedly but still not trying to make things any heavier this early in the morning than they had to be. 

"Well, good news is even if I did ruin your date, dad is gonna make sure you never date anyone again anytime soon, so it doesn't really matter."

"Yayyyyy." You sighed, heading over to the window with your backpack and the plate of toast. If Zack wasn't going to be over this morning, it would mean you'd have to walk with Cloud and Tifa alone, so you decided you go to school with Riku.

"Chin up, solider. At least he didn't go along on your date, or stage a café in the backyard and make you have the date there."

"He did that to you?" You asked, leg half out the window.

"Every time, until I threw such a big fit he got tired of the headaches."

"Well, good to know fit throwing works in this family." You shrugged. 

"Yeah, because that's the take away you were supposed to get from that." He rolled his eyes, then noticed you were at the window, "You going to school with Riku?"

"Yeah, probably. See you later." 

"See you in school. And be careful on the tree." He called after you as you recklessly dashed across it, dying to get your coffee, then closed the window after you.

∞

That day in gym, you were told not to change out. Instead you were all made to sit around the gym floor while a special presentation was given on wilderness survival skills, emergency first aid, fiend identification, and even cooking. You were completely baffled, but everyone else seemed to be perfectly content staring with glazed over looks at Auron as he gave extensive details on how to differentiate the different kinds of elemental Flan.

"It's training. For Spira? We leave in like...a month and a half, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." Roxas explained to you after you pestered enough that he couldn't ignore you any longer, no matter how much he was afraid of Auron yelling at him for talking.

"Oh..." You mumbled, thinking maybe—just maybe—you might have paid a little bit more attention to all the fiend talk if you knew, but Auron had moved on to describing the kinds of habitats you would find in Spira, and how to survive them.

At the very end of his lecture, just before the bell rang he began to send around a sign-up sheet, explaining, "In the coming weeks, we will be hosting a weekend long camp to test your survival skills. This is an optional camp, but should you meet our requirements for passing this survival test, you will be allowed to travel Spira in your group unescorted by adult faculty supervision. You must take the test individually, and must pass the test on your own. Then later when groups are decided, you will be given a permit to travel if and only if all three members of the group have passed their tests and have parental permission.

"The test will involve sending you out into the wilderness over the upcoming long weekend, starting next Friday morning, and you will not be allowed to return home until 6:00 am Monday morning. You will be given no food, water, or shelter, besides anything you bring and carry yourself, and you will need to defend yourself from any fiend encounter should any occur."

"Wow...sounds intense." You mumbled to Roxas, who scoffed.

"That's kind of the whole point." He sassed you, and you rolled your eyes at him.

"Whatever. Are you gonna do it?" You asked.

"Of course I am. I am not getting stuck at base camp again with the teachers. You have to go on planned activates and do lessons on culture and history if you stay with them." 

"Oh no, culture! How terrible." You rolled your eyes at him, and he shot you a dry look.

"You don't get it. Axel says he and his group spent all last year exploring these ancient desert ruins outside Agrabah. We didn't even get to go to the desert." Roxas grumbled bitterly, taking the sign up sheet as soon as it was passed to him and writing his name. You took the pen from him when he finished, then shook your head at how messy his handwriting was before writing your name on the list.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, you're signing up?" Xion asked, coming out of the open-eyed coma she slipped into looking at Auron's lecture slides.

"Yeah, why not?" You shrugged, passing it to her.

"I don't know...I heard from Zexion that it was really, really hard." She said, taking the form and looking at all the names of the people who had signed up to see if she thought she could hang out there in the wilderness with any of them.

"You heard that from Zexion? Who is your older brother, and who probably doesn't want you away from adult supervision on the trip so you can't bother him?" You raised an eyebrow.

Roxas agreed, adding, "Axel told me it's really not that bad. It's not hard to find other people out there, and when people start working together it gets super easy. That whole 'pass the test on your own' crap is just to scare people."

"So...there's no guys running around trying to convince people to drink their own pee and spoon naked for warmth?" She asked, clicking the pen like she was debating signing up.

"Well, sure, but his name is Gippal and you are free to ignore him." You shrugged, and Roxas laughed. She sighed and put her name down on the list, then handed it to Selphie who quickly passed it along to Olette.

"Wait, you don't want to do it?" Olette asked, thinking if you had just signed up, then maybe she would too.

"I don't know. It sounds awful." Selphie shrugged.

"Xion and ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ are doing it." Olette said, pointing out your names to her.

"If they want to play in the dirt, that's their prerogative." She said through a yawn.

"I think I'm going to sign up." Olette said, taking the pen and writing her name.

"Yeah, me too." Kairi nodded, adding her name.

"I'll give it a shot, also." Naminé said, seeing Pence's name on the sheet.

"Wait, seriously?" Selphie sat up, and gave the sign-up sheet a real look, "Oh I get it. You just want to hang out with the boys after dark."

"Not everything is about boys, Sel." Olette sighed, and Selphie clapped her on the back.

"Don't you worry, Olette. We'll get you that alone time with Roxas." She whispered, and Olette rolled her eyes.

"For the last time, I'm not interested in Roxas." She whispered back, thinking he was just a little ways away so she'd best keep her voice down.

"Hayner then?"

"No!"

"Ohhh...fine. Give me the sheet." Selphie sighed, thinking she wasn't going to be the only one of her friends who didn't get to go off and explore Spira.

The bell rang and you stayed in the gym a few minutes into break to wait for everyone to get their names on the sign up sheet, then you gave your backpack to Roxas and asked him to drop it in front of your locker before you headed to the nurse's office to see Ven. You wanted desperately to talk to him—the real him—about what happened this morning, but he wasn't there. His office was locked, and the other nurses said he didn't come in that morning. You went to find Lulu, but she hadn't come in either. You did manage to find Terra in the Blitz gym, setting up the rink for the night's big game. You'd never really spoke to him before one-on-one, but at least you knew he had some idea what was going on.

"Hey, Terra?" You asked tentatively, walking up and feeling almost shy. He was a huge guy, taller than Gippal even, and around as muscular as Angeal; it was a little intimidating, to say the least.

"Oh, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. Sorry, didn't see you there." He said, sounding nice enough. He was busy inspecting the oxidation levels of the blitz water, and didn't hear you come up.

"That's alright. I was just wondering if...well, Ven..." You played with your hands nervously, afraid that you had done something to him, or set something off, and you were the cause of him losing control over himself.

"Don't you go worrying yourself about Ven. He's fine. That kid can bounce back from just about anything." Terra gave you a reassuring smile, but it didn't help you feel any better.

"He's not at school today. Neither is Lulu."

"No he's at his place, sleeping it off. He exhausts himself sometimes, that's all. Lulu is making sure nothing happens to him while he rests."

"It's just...are you sure he's alright?"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, really, he's fine." Terra shrugged, and you hung your head.

"That's what I always say when I'm lying, too."

The bell rang, and you sighed thinking you spent your so much time trying to track down someone to talk to that now you couldn't get any answers.

"Go on, get to class. He's going to be alright. Lulu's never failed him, I doubt this time will be any different." He said, and you bit your cheek and nodded a thanks at him, thinking that was about as good as it was going to get. Hopefully Aqua came to school and would be teaching your magic training class, and you could talk to her later.

Riku, Roxas, and Sora were all talking in front of your locker, waiting for Roxas before going off to class, so you had to walk through their conversation to get your bag.

"Where've you been?" Riku asked as you pushed him off your locker, where he was leaning.

"Went for a walk." You shrugged, "Sitting on the gym floor for an hour made me wanna get up and move around a little."

"Are you okay, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈? You look a little down in the dumps." Sora asked, and you could have sworn you saw both Riku and Roxas tense up a little as he asked.

"Not really. I have math next." You sighed, pulling out your math book and holding it in your arms sadly.

"Oh, that sucks." He gave you a look of total sympathy and reached into his pocket and pulled out a candy bar, "Here, do you want this? I was saving it for later, but—"

"Hey, that's mine!" Roxas snapped, trying to snatch it out of Sora's hand, but Sora pulled it away just in time.

"Roxas, she has math next _. Math._ " He shot Roxas a look like he couldn't understand where he got off being so heartless,

"Yeah, Roxy. Math." You shot him a look, and he sighed, and shut his locker forcefully.

He sighed, picking up his bag, "Are you even bad at math?"

"No, but...math." You and Sora both teamed up to give him 'the eyes' as you took the candy bar.

"Oh my god, fine." He rolled eyes at the both of you before the four of you made your way down the hall.

"Hey, ≈≈≈≈≈≈ are you coming to the blitz game tonight?" Sora asked, and you shrugged.

"I don't know. I hadn't really made any plans one way or another." You admitted, "I'm just trying to get through the school day in one piece."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, it's our first home game! You have to come. Everyone paints their faces, we do the Chocobo Shuffle at halftime, there are nachos and hot dogs and pretzels, and then when it's over, we go to Denny's!"

"Denny's?" You laughed, and he nodded enthusiastically.

"Coach pays if we win!"

"Though how anyone can be hungry after stuffing their faces all game, I'll never know." Riku said, shooting you and Roxas a look. He was in the game so he wasn't out there eating for two hours, but Roxas just shrugged.

"You make room."

"Yeah, Riku. You make room." You returned his judgey look, and he rolled his eyes.

"By the way, I'm number 4, and Riku is number 7...though I would highly recommend number 4." Sora went on, getting a cheeky grin.

"For what?" You asked, finding yourself smiling a little despite not knowing what he was talking about. His smile was just infectious.

"For your face paint! Everyone puts a number on their cheek. Or just TTA (Traverse Town Academy), but, I think a nice like #4 would look great right about...here." He turned to look at you and then poked you in the cheek, forcing you to smile even more. You laughed and swatted away his hand, then he got a sheepish look on his face, "Course, I'll probably be bench warming, so I understand if you don't want my number on you."

"Sora, don't you dare." You gave him a stern look, "I've seen you get better in practice every day. You'll be put in the game for sure." You couldn't see the looks and eye rolls Riku and Roxas exchanged behind your back, but you heard Roxas mumble 'don't hold your breath' and you swiftly elbowed him, "Don't listen to them. Even if you're not in this game, you'll be in one soon. I believe in you."

Sora's cheek got rosy and he got a bashful smile, "This is why I don't get how you can hang around these grumps so much. You're too sweet to be hanging around these dillholes."

"You did just see her elbow me, right?" Roxas chipped in, and you shot him a look that asked if he wanted another one.

"In defense of me, so yes. She  _is_  sweet. God knows not anyone else in this family will defend or support me."

"Oh please, when was the last time you supported me?" Roxas grumbled.

"Kinda hard to support loafing around all day in your room playing music." Sora shot back.

"Maybe you should start a band." You suggested, and Roxas gave you some serious side eye, "What? You could. I'm sure Demyx wouldn't mind joining you."

"Hey, you could be The Frosty Bitches." Sora offered, "You know, because you're an ice mage, and water is basically ice waiting to happen."

"And a bitch." Riku shrugged, and Roxas rounded on him to punch him in the arm a couple of times.

"Hey Sora, what's Cloud's jersey number?" You asked while the other two continued fighting.

"13." He said, deflating a little.

"Hey, I've got two cheeks, don't I?" You grabbed his arm and pulled him over to you so you could walk while latched onto him.

"Technically, you've got four. Can we expect your ass to be attending the game, too?" Axel asked, walking up after he turned the corner from the junior hall to the main hallway you were walking down. Surprise, surprise, he found a way to walk in at the perfect moment to slip in a few inappropriate comments before math class. 

"Maybe. Just don't bring yours. I don't know if I could stop myself from kicking it." You shrugged, and he smirked.

"Well, in that case—"

"Hey Axel, do you wanna join Roxas' band, The Frosty Bitches?" Sora piped in, getting the sneaking suspicion that Axel was about to start flirting with you, or at least make you mad and distracted enough that they'd lose your attention for the rest of the walk. 

"The...Frosty..." Axel began, cocking his head to one side as he tried to process if Sora was making a joke or not.

"Ignore him." Roxas sighed.

"Don't ignore him, start a band with Roxas." You said, then added, "You could be The Flaming Fuckheads."

"Oooo or get ≈≈≈≈≈≈ join so you're fire, water, ice, and lightning, then be The Tetra Elemencunts." Riku suggested, and Roxas looked like he was boiling.

"All of you can go to hell."

You all started laughing at him, when you saw Genesis walking up ahead. Riku was about to say something to you when you decided to let go of Sora's arm and dash on ahead so you could talk to Genesis.

"So, are you—≈≈≈≈≈≈≈!" He began, then sighed after seeing who you raced off to go see.

Roxas saw the defeated look on Riku's face as you began to walk so close to Genesis your shoulder brushed his arm, and decided to very sympathetically give him a hard double slap to the back, "Oh man, tough break."

"Shut up, Roxas."

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" Roxas sigh, withdrawing his hand from Riku as he rolled his eyes.

"Because, you never to shut up, Rox." Sora smirked, and Roxas glared at him.

"Look who's talking."

Meanwhile, you had just caught up with Genesis.

"Morning." You said, as you walked up, accidentally bumping your arm into his as you tried to dodge an oncoming group of students who were taking up the whole hall.

"Good morning, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. How are you doing?" He asked causally, looking up from his book long enough to give you a pleasant smile and let you know you had his attention.

"Could be worse." You shrugged, "Last night was just...a little too much excitement for me."

"I'd like to apologize to you for causing such a scene. I hope I didn't get you into any trouble."

"Don't worry about it. It was a stressful situation, you reacted like anyone else would have." You tucked your hair behind your ear and looked away, hoping he wouldn't bring up the whole 'fainting on the doorstep' thing. "I had a lot of fun last night."

"Did you?" His smile widened, and you found yourself getting lost in his steely gray-blue eyes. His eyes dropped from your eyes to your lips and he held his gaze there for a moment before blinking to snap himself out of it, "I'm sorry, but your father said he doesn't want me to see you again."

"Of course he doesn't." You blew your bangs out of your eyes in an irritated fashion, then sighed, "Well, hey. There's nothing to say we can't still be friends."

"I'd like that very much. Maybe we can revisit our relationship when things settle down."

You had to stop yourself from laughing. It wasn't going to calm down. Not for you. But you decided not to correct him, and instead looked at the book in his hand and tried to catch the title to change the subject. He saw you looking and turned the book for you to make it easier to see.

" _A SOLDIER's Honor_." He said, putting his thumb on the page he was reading so he could keep his place as he closed the book to show you the cover. It was a picture of the SOLDIER logo on the hilt of a sword, and while you admired the cover he went on to explain, "It's a collection of short stories written by former SOLDIERs."

"I didn't know you had any interest in SOLIDER." You mused, looking from the cover to him.

"I'm interested in a great deal of things." He shrugged, then stopped to hold the door for you as the two of you made it to the math classroom. Axel was just steps behind you, and bumped into you with a smirk as he brushed passed the two of you and took his usual seat beside Genesis before you could get to it, clearly not liking the two of you being all buddy-buddy now, but that was just fine by you. You wanted to sit by Naminé today anyway to ask her about the pre-blitz game plan for your friend group.

∞

The rest of the day passed as smoothly as it could have. The junior boys were even so well behaved in history you were able to get four whole pages of notes done. Normally you got so distracted by them carrying on that you only really managed to get half the information on the slides, and had to copy Riku's notes at lunch. Poetry was poetry, but it could have been worse. The day was spent mostly reading sonnets out loud, then discussing them, so you were able to tune out for the most part until it came time for discussion, and then you could just make things up. Then in magic you were able to talk to Aqua a little about Ven. She told you pretty much the same thing Terra did—that he was fine, this sometimes just happened to him and he needed to rest—but she had at least been by to see him during lunch and was able to update you on his condition, telling you Lulu said he was back to normal and sleeping like a champ. Then she made you drop the subject and get to work on learning to control force magic, so you didn't stumble into accidentally using it without knowing how again.

As the final bell for the day rang, you thanked her for telling you what she did, then made your way to the lockers. You were going to go home and change out of your school clothes, swing by Ven's apartment in the First District to check on him, then meet your friends out in front of the school to get painted before the big game, but something stopped you dead in your tracks when you opened up your locker door.

Sitting on the top shelf was a bouquet of yellow flowers with black centers.

'Genesis.' You smiled to yourself a little, but then you noticed the card that said 'Gainsborough Florist' on one side, and a blank 'to: from:' line on the other. You bit your cheek, thinking Genesis wasn't the kind of guy to leave it blank. Unless he thought it would just be obvious that they were from him. But still, surely he would have left some kind of indication they were from him.

"Wow, looks like you've got yourself a secret admirer." Shikamaru said walking up to his locker besides yours and seeing you turning the bouquet over in your hands to triple check there was no other card anywhere. It was pretty rare to see him there, since he was normally too lazy to walk all the way back to his locker in between classes, but you enjoyed your conversations with him when he was there all the same.

"I don't know. Secret admirers usually tell you they are secretly admiring you." You sighed in frustration as you put the flowers back on the top shelf and began to empty your backpack of books you didn't need, and fill it with the ones you did, thinking that was better than just standing in the hall staring at the flowers with a dumb look on your face.

"There are flowers in your locker. How much more proof do you need?" He rolled his eyes, then leaned in to examine them a little closer to read the type of flower that was listed under 'Gainsborough Florist,' "Huh. Rudbeckia hirta. Not your typical choice for sending to a lady friend."

"Ruda-who?" You raised an eyebrow at him, but he just shot you a lazy glance.

"Rudbeckia hirta. You know, Black-Eyed Susan?" He shrugged, and you gave the flowers another look.

"Black eye, huh?" You smiled a little to yourself, now knowing exactly who put the flowers in there, "See you later Shiky." You said before taking the flowers out carefully putting them in the side water bottle mesh pocket of your backpack and closing your locker door.

"Whatever." He yawned, and you shook your head. The only person who was as lazy and perpetually tired as him was Ven. You walked off to the junior hall, but Yuffie told you Zack, Gippal, and Axel ran off to the Choco Hut in town as soon as the bell rang to get a pre-game snack. With no reason to stay in the school anymore, you decided to go back to your original plan and began to make your way home.

You stepped out of the school's front entrance just in time to see Roxas launch himself off the circle of cement around the front garden on his skateboard while Pence snapped photos. You stopped in your tracks, watching in awe as he grinded the board against the corner of the cement, then jumped high into the air and reached a hand down to pull the board up as he spun. You were completely impressed and about to run over and go gush over how awesome that was, when he crash landed and all that glory came crashing down with him. He landed by stepping his back foot down on the board first, but his wheels hit a bumpy patch of cobblestone, getting caught between the stone and the cement, and his ankle buckled. He was completely off balance when the front wheels hit and he tumbled forward off the nose of the board, landing on his hands and knees before momentum carried him down to his face and he skidded a few feet on the rough ground.

"Roxy!" You rushed over to him and got there around the same time as Pence.

"Are you okay?" Pence asked as Roxas began to push himself up despite his bleeding palms. You could see he tore holes in the knees of his pants, and the bloody cut up the skin underneath.

"Ooooowwwwww." He whined, and you took his arm and pulled him up to his feet. Well, foot. He stepped down with both, then winced and gasped and fell into you a little bit as he realized how badly he messed up his left foot, "I'm okay." He tried to assure you both with a sigh, trying to straighten out his sweater, "I'm okay." He repeated, probably trying to convince himself it was true.

"Oh god, that looks really bad." Your eyebrows knitted together as you touched your fingers lightly to his jaw to get him to turn his head so you could get a proper look at his skinned, bleeding chin as it dripped down onto his white shirt.

"I'm okay, really." He said, trying to put weight on his foot again as he grabbed his tie and used it to wipe away the blood that was from his chin, smearing it down his neck. You and Pence both grimaced. 

"Rox, I think you twisted your ankle." Pence grabbed Roxas by his arm so he could push him off his left foot when it was clearly hurt.

"No, it's fine." He brushed it off, trying to take a step, but he limped so heavily you thought he was going to fall again.

"Come on, let's get you to the nurse." You took his arm and put it around your shoulder so he couldn't try to walk on that foot again.

"No, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, it's okay. I have stuff for this at home." He groaned as you began to head back towards the school.

"Someone could heal you in no time flat, you're being ridiculous."

"You said Ventus isn't here today, and no one else in the nurses' office knows white magic." Roxas resisted being pulled back to the school while Pence went after his skateboard where it had rolled away after the crash.

"Then let's get you to Aqua—"

"She's busy with the blitz team, getting them taped up and ready for the game."

"Why are you being so stubborn?" You glared at him as he tried to hop over to Pence to get his board back.

"Because I can take care of it myself." He said, trying to get towards the stairs that led out of the school and into the housing district.

"Will you at least let me help you get home?" You sighed, seeing he was intending to hop the whole way home.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈..." He sighed right back at you, and you crossed your arms.

"Fine. I won't help you. But I'm going home, and you're going home, so..." You shrugged, making your way after him towards the stairs. You lived on the same block, so it's not like he was going to get away from you.

Pence tried to follow, but Roxas gave him a pleading look, "Not you too." 

"I'm sorry, Roxas, but it looks like you're really hurt." Pence shrugged.

"Well I'm really not. Go get your blitz photos. Your assignment is more important."

"No it's not." Pence argued, but Roxas shot him a glare.

"I'll see you at the game." He said in a tone that made it sound final.

"Yeah, we'll paint someone's number on you in his blood." You gave a sarcastic smile, and Roxas glowered at you.

"Okay...well...get him back in one piece..." Pence sighed, playing with the lens of his camera absently as it hung around his neck while Roxas hopped up onto the rail of the stairs and slid down it.

"You trying to break the other ankle?" You scolded him.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, I am fine."

"Fine."

"I am."

"I said fine."

" _I am_!"

"Okay!" You rolled your eyes as he hopped from one stair railing to the next to slide down the next flight. "God, your family just loves turning away help, doesn't it?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" He shot back, stumbling to a stop at the base of the stairs.

"It means Ven was kind of sick this morning, and he won't let me help him either." You said giving him a dismissive look as you began to walk off towards home without him.

Roxas looked at you with a pained expression before sighing, "Alright already. You can help me."

"Thank you." You said, taking the skateboard out from under his arm and putting it on the ground before taking his arm and telling him to step up onto the board. His placed his hands on your shoulders to help keep his balance, though he had to use the sides of his hands to avoid pressing his bloody scraped hands into the fabric of your shirt, both for fear of staining your sweater and to try and make it as painless as possible. Once he was up on the board, gingerly stepping down on his left foot, you put your hands on his waist and began rolling him along slowly.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, this is humiliating." He sighed, trying to avoid eye contact with you as you continued to roll him.

"More humiliating than visiting your brother with some booboos?" You gave him a look, and his cheeks flushed bright pink.

"He's the one who taught me...if he knows I crashed and ate cobblestone—"

"He'll think you're less of a man?" You raised an eyebrow, "Because you're such a macho, manly, burly, man's man who—"

"Shut up, you wouldn't understand."

"You just wiped out. You were doing a kick ass trick, and bricked the landing a little. It's completely understandable."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈..."

"More understandable than wanting to walk around with painful looking scrapes and a busted ankle, but god forbid you bust your manly man pride—"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈. Shut. Up."

"And another thing; why do you always call him Ventus? It's just Ven.  You're allowed to just call him Ven. In fact, he hates being called Ventus. He's your brother, why are you being so weird?"

"I'm not being weird!"

"Oh, sure!" You snapped.

"The hell are you two doing?" Axel called out as he rounded onto the street you were on with a pack of choco-nuggets in hand and a gym bag hanging off his shoulder.

You tried to look over at Axel and ended up hitting a bump in the cobblestone. Roxas teetered backwards, struggling to catch his balance with only one good foot, so you grabbed a fist full of his sweater and yanked him forward. The board skidded out from under him, and he crashed into you, knocking you straight to the dirt off the side of the road into someone's front garden.

"Whoa, Rostar, take it easy." Axel smirked as he walked up with Gippal, plopping a nugget into his mouth as he tilted his head to get a proper look at the two of you. Roxas was straddling you on his hands and knees, and your skirt had flipped up when you fell. You were wearing black tights, but knew Axel could still see through them to your underwear if his giggling had anything to say about it.

"Bite me." You snapped at him, and to your surprise Gippal stepped in front of Axel and scowled at him, blocking his view of you as you struggled to help Roxas up while fixing your skirt.

"Don't you sexualize her. She's practically a child." Gippal scolded Axel, who scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"I wasn't, and she's not."

"You were, and she is."

"I wasn't, I was gawking at her granny panties." He brushed passed Gippal and over to Roxas, who he pulled up to his feet.

"Hey! They're boyshorts." You flushed from equal parts anger and embarrassment as Gippal helped to lift Roxas back up to his feet before offering you a hand up.

"I don't know what that means." Axel shrugged, taking another bite of a nugget with an amused smile.

"Now that's a surprise. If there's anything I thought you'd be good at, it's identifying ladies undies." Gippal mumbled, then they both seemed to realize Roxas was hurt and not getting up on his own, so Axel put one of Roxas' arms around his neck and Gippal moved over to take the other.

"What happened to you, Roxstar?" Axel asked as he and Gippal exchanged a look before holding out their chicken boxes for you and then each lifted one of Roxas' legs.

"Nothing." He pouted, and you rolled your eyes as you took a bite out of one of Gippal's nuggets. 

"He fell off his board and won't let me take him to a healer." You explained plainly to spite him. 

"That's a man's prerogative, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. You don't mess with a man's prerogative." Axel scoffed at you.

"Or his chicken." Gippal added, seeing exactly what you were up to over there with his nuggets. You just raised an eyebrow and finished the nugget, daring him to do something about it.

"Should have known better than to trust her with your food." Roxas snickered.

"Shut up, Roxas." You replied automatically, not even really bothering to listen to the particulars of his insult to know you had to say it, "Where's Zack, anyway? I need to talk to him." You asked, seeing the flowers sitting in the side pocket of your backpack as you were tucking Roxas' skateboard into the big pocket so you didn't have to carry it by hand.

"What's wrong with talking to me?" Gippal rolled his eyes. "Why do the Strifes only want to talk to Zack? Is there something wrong with me?"

"Well, a couple things, but..." You shrugged.

"Cloud intercepted him at the Choco Hut. Apparently he wanted to talk Zack as well. Something going on?" Axel shot you a look over his shoulder despite how difficult it was to do so while still carrying Roxas.

"Zack didn't tell you?" You asked, meaning he didn't tell them about Cloud punching him in the face, but as they shot you clueless looks you figured he really hadn't, "I'm pregnant."

Axel and Gippal stopped and all three of them looked back at you for a moment as if weighing whether or not you were joking. You crossed your arms and scoffed, then kept walking so now you were leading the way home.

"Vun vilgc cyga, fusyh (for fucks sake, woman)." Gippal slurred something in Al Bhed at you which you ignored.

"That's funny. We all know you'd probably headbutt him if he ever did try anything with you, anyway." Axel smirked, and you could tell he was picturing it.

"That's a bad plan, see his head's too thick for that to really do any damage." Gippal explained, "What you wanna do is grab him by the nip-nip, twist, then run away. He has sensitive nipples. Now, any guy can fall for a knee to the balls, that's your standard incapacitater. But a nip-nip-twist? That's personal."

"Foon vilick psyga." You did your best to repeat his Al Bhed phrase.

"Your accent is  _terrible_." Was all he said in reply.

The four of you passed by your house and delivered Roxas to his front door, where he insisted he'd be fine on his own and would be right back. So you, Gippal, and Axel all sat on the front stairs and continued your conversation.

"I don't know. A good knee to the balls is the worst." Axel mused, "First comes all that pain, then you double over because of course you double over, and you see stripes and lights, and when your vision finally clears all you see is some angry broad with a look on her face screaming 'you deserve this.' Plus, then you're stuck speaking in a falsetto for a couple minutes."

"Wow. You sure know a lot about getting kneed in the balls." You remarked, eyeing him, then you turned to Gippal, "And how do you know so much about Zack's nipples?"

"I make it a point to learn everyone's weaknesses." He shrugged.

"Oh yeah, what's my weakness?" Axel shot.

"Your balls." Gippal stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well, you got me there." Axel shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck and thinking maybe he shouldn't have asked that literally ten seconds after talking about it.

"What about me?" You asked, and Gippal took a long, careful look at you. Finally, he smirked as the answer came to him, and he took one of the flowers out of the plastic bouquet wrapper and put it between his teeth.

"Romance." He said dramatically, then taking the flower and sticking it behind your ear after he made his point.

You and Axel both stared disgustedly at him for a moment before you turned back to Axel, "So what would you say is the best technique for that knee to the balls?"

"Oh, you grab their head then drive with the hips." He took you by the hand and pulled you up with him as he got to his feet. "That's where the power comes from. It's all in the hips." He turned you around and put his hands on your hips to show you how to drive them forward for maximum impact.

"Don't you look at her hips. Or touch them." Gippal said, getting to his feet now too.

"Why, are you her father now something?" Axel rolled his eyes.

He thought for a second, then said, "Yes."

"What, does that make Zack my mother?" You shot him a look, but he kept that same dopy-but-serious look on his face.

"Also yes."

You got up on your tip toes to grab Gippal around the neck and pull him forward so he was off balance and falling into your knee as you brought it up groin level. Gippal just barely had enough time to throw his hands down and lift his own leg to try and block you, but you still got him good enough that he wheezed a little and doubled over.

"Hey, there you go." Axel grinned a shit eating grin.

"That's...my baby..." Gippal said in a strained, high voice.

The front door opened and Roxas returned, a band-aid on his chin, and gauze taped to his palms and knee, and on crutches. He couldn't even use the crutches properly because of his hurt palms, but that certainly wasn't stopping him.

"Seriously? You'd rather walk around on crutches than go see your brother?" You gaped at him.

"Maybe." He replied sheepishly, and you deadpanned at him before taking your backpack off the step and throwing it over your shoulder.

"You're an idiot."

" _You're_  an idiot." He shot back childishly, his crutches clicking as he left his house and shut the door behind him.

"I'll see you at the game." You shook your head before walking off to your own house to change and get your flowers into some water. You found one of Cloud's TTA blitz t-shirts from last year that had his number on it, and decided he wouldn't mind if you wore it over a pair of jeans and some sneakers. You kept the single black and yellow flower behind your ear, since it was your school colors after all, then shot out the front door before your mother or Basch could try to talk to you about where you were going or what you were doing today. You still had plenty of time before you were supposed to meet your friends out in front of the school, so you went to the First District to see Ven.

You knew he lived in the small studio apartment above the only restaurant in the district, so it wasn't that hard to find even though you'd never been there. Soon enough you found yourself standing outside his door on the stairs, but you were strangely hesitant about knocking. You were scared you'd open the door and find him sitting there with golden eyes.

You were put at ease though as you heard Ven and Lulu starting to argue from inside.

"Eat your soup, Ventus." Lulu sounded exasperated with him, but then that was nothing new.

"I told you I'm not hungry!"

"You're already too skinny. Eat."

"I will, when I am hungry!"

"Look at you, I can practically see your ribs!"

"No you can't."

"Your little brothers are going to be bigger than you are!"

"Well, whose fault is that?"

"Certianly not mine, I'm trying to make you eat."

"I'm  _not_  hungry!"

"Maybe ≈≈≈≈≈ can make you eat."

"What does she have to do with anything?"

"Come in, the door is open." Lulu called, and you blinked, wondering how she knew.

" _What_!?" Ven gasped as you pushed open the door and stepped in with a sheepish smile on your face as he drew the covers over himself. He had been laying in bed, completely shirtless as far as you could tell with the blankets up to his shoulders, and Lulu was standing over him with a bowl of soup in her hands.

His apartment was small, and you could see virtually all of it from the door way. There was a kitchen made up of a stove, and small counter, and a fridge that led into the 'living room' where there was a TV positioned on the corner of a desk covered in medical texts, and then there was a bed smooshed in the other corner directly across from the desk. There was a bookshelf with lots of junk covering the shelves, and clothes and books and more junk on the floors, but despite all the clutter it didn't feel cramped like a small space like this might.

"How did you know she was here?" He gawked.

"Oh please Ventus, how could you not know? It's like a lightning storm is standing on your doorstep and you don't even notice." She huffed at him, dropping the soup bowl on his nightstand before walking over to you, saying, "You try reasoning with him. Ridiculous boy." She brushed passed you for the door, keeping a sour look on her face until she began to close it behind her. You could have sworn you saw her face soften as she left. You decided to just ignore that for now, and walked over to his bed and plopping down by his feet. Hey, he never showed any discomfort in lounging around in your bed.

"What are you doing here, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" He asked, sitting up in bed and rubbed his eyes before running a hand though his hair and giving it a good messing up. He ended up shaking his hair into his eyes, and you had to tilt your head slightly to get to look passed the mess of blonde spikes to see his blue eyes.

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay." You shrugged, and he must have seen you trying to specifically look him in the eye, and he pulled his knees into his chest and avoided eye contact.

"Don't worry. I am." He shrugged, taking the glasses off his nightstand and playing with them in his hands a little before putting them on, probably just to give himself something else to do beside make eye contact.

"Ven..."

"I...I didn't hurt you, did I?" He rubbed the back of his neck, and continued to avoid looking in your general direction and opted to look out the window instead, "I mean...I didn't do anything to you, right?"

"You don't remember?" You asked, and his brows knitted together as he bit his cheek, and you figured that meant he didn't, "No, of course you didn't."

"You say that like I have any kind of control when I...when  _that_  happens."

"Well, you didn't hurt me. You didn't even try to. Actually, you..." You stopped, not sure if you should tell him, but he gave you such a frightened look, like he was horrified to hear what he might have done to you, that you felt like you had to continue, "You tried to...kiss me." His worried expression didn't really go away, but he started laughing. You began to blush as you looked away, tucking your hair behind your ear awkwardly, and his eyes widened as he sat up in bed.

"Wait, holy shit..." He let the blanket fall by the wayside as he leaned forward to get a better look at the side of your neck you exposed when you absently moved your hair. You leaned back, not sure what he was doing, but as he completely ignored your weirded out expression and pushed your hair behind your shoulder, you remember he bit your neck right before you froze him. You were so wrapped up in everything that had happened and then so busy with school, you never had a chance to check the mirror and see that he had left a mark. You were guessing from Ven's reaction that he had. You basically had a hickey. "Tell me Genesis did that..."

You shook your head.

"Well, you were with Riku for the night...did he—"

"No!" You quickly snapped. "It was you...I mean, not  _you,_ but...I tried to stop you...In fact, I...I did. Guess who knows how to use a stop spell?" You sighed.

"...Congratulations..." He stared at you, looking more concerned and confused than ever.

"What's wrong? Talk to me." You urged, trying to get him to keep him from clamming up and shutting you out again.

"I don't know...it's just," He sighed, "he's only ever been destructive. I don't get it. Why would I— _he_  try to kiss you?"

"No idea."

"Did he say anything or do anything else?"

"He..." You paused, sure he wouldn't like this either, "It's like he was pretending to be you. Like I wouldn't notice something was off, or that you weren't you anymore."

He grew quiet, and rested his chin on his knee as he studied your expression. He seemed deeply troubled, but you couldn't think of anything to say or do to try and comfort him. It sucked. He was always able to say something to help you feel better, but you just didn't have his talent for it.

Even though you hated it when people asked you this question, it was the only thing you could think of asking, "Are you alright?"

He took a while to answer, but finally shrugged lightly and said, "I guess. I'm just happy I didn't hurt you."

"Well, you did bite me, so..." You grinned, and he gave a light chuckle.

"I'm sorry." It was small, but he was definitely returning your smile, "Come here, I'll get rid of that mark for you."

"Ooo by making your own?" You rolled your eyes at him.

"Don't start with me." He gave you a dry look.

"Then don't phrase things like a creep." You shot back, leaning forward and turning your head to the side all the same so he could get at the bruise on your neck. "You know, if you wanted to kiss me that badly—"

"Shut up."

"You didn't have to go to such extremes."

"I will punch you in your goddamn face. Cloud style." He did his best to ignore your smirk and focus on healing the bite marks and bruise on you. It only took him a couple of seconds to heal it up, but as he did he realized he could feel your pulse and he quickly hopped out of bed and began rummaging around in the corner for something or another. He was in nothing but his boxers. Green moogle boxers. You suddenly realized why he was so intent on covering himself up with the blankets.

"Good lord, Ven. Are you six?" You sighed, thinking your life was in the hands of a boy with more pairs of cartoon underwear than the average child.

"Don't test me. Just because I'm a healer doesn't mean I'm not willing to take you down." He said, though he quickly grabbed some jeans from off the floor and pulled them on before taking the first t-shirt he found off on the back of the chair and throwing that on as well. He then returned to looking for whatever he got up for to being with, and finally found a stethoscope buried under a pile of medical books and a spilled box of rubber gloves, "Ah-ha!" He beamed, walking back over to the bed with it and plopping down in front of you.

"Why do you have that in your house?" You sighed, knowing this was about to turn bad for you.

"Can't hear you." He shrugged, the little plugs already in his ears.

You grabbed the small cup shaped listening piece of the stethoscope and spoke into it, "Why do we have to do this now?" You asked into it loudly.

He cringed and pulled it away from you with a glare and scowled at you until you rolled your eyes and moved closer to him so he could place the little cup over your heart. You felt like you needed to hold your breath so he could hear it properly, until he shot you a look like you were moron, obviously noticing that you weren't breathing. You shrugged a little, then looked at the ceiling as he continued to listen intently to the beating of your heart. You were surprisingly nervous. It made you very conscious of how fast it was beating, which only made it beat faster.

"Everything okay?" You asked, feeling like he was certainly listening for long enough to have figured it out by now.

He sighed and sat up, keeping the listening piece in place but taking the ear piece out and handing it over to you. You put them in listened curiously to the rhythmic beating, not really hearing anything out of the ordinary. After a moment you looked up at Ven and shrugged, not hearing what he was, apparently. He got up again as you took the ear piece out and set the stethoscope aside on the nightstand. He pulled a keyboard piano out from under the bed and turned it on as he returned to his seat beside you, setting the keyboard on his lap.

"So a normal heart sounds like this, yeah?" He said, beginning to tap one of the keys on the piano with his left hand in the typical 'bump-bump...bump-bump' you'd expect from a heartbeat. "And yours sounds like this." He said, taking his right hand and tapping another key at the same time as he continued the normal beat. At first the two were synchronized, but then yours started to do this faster double beat for every couple of regular ones, and soon enough it was completely off from the steady 'beating' of the normal heart.

"Oh..." You mumbled, holding a thumb over the pulse in your wrist, now able to feel the occasional double beat, "Does it mean anything?"

"Well, Lulu doesn't think so, since we don't know when it started. I mean, who knows, maybe you've always been this way."

"And what do you think?" You asked, distinctly recognizing he only said what Lulu thinks about it.

He sighed, "I don't know. More beats means more blood pumping, and your blood is a little bit tainted. I think the extra beats might just be helping the stigma to spread."

"...Well that's terrifying..." You finally said, not sure what else to say to that.

"I know, and I'm sorry." He said, taking his glasses off and giving you a sincerely apologetic look, "But hey, maybe I'm wrong."

"Your heart doesn't do this, right?"

"No. I'm lightly possessed, but my heartbeat is normal. So I've got that going for me."

"Lightly possessed?" You eyed him and he shrugged.

"It's complicated." He rubbed the back of his neck. 

"So I'm beginning to see." You raised your eyebrows and gave his eyes another scan to make sure they were blue and staying that way. 

"I'd really like to apologize again for you having to see me like that. It's not something I generally like to let happen, especially not when other people are around."

"You don't have to apologize." You said lightly, giving a weak shrug. You wished you could ask him to tell you more about what was going on with him, but he still just didn't seem ready and you would hate for it to cause old yellow eyes to come back.

He looked like he was about to say something else, when your phone suddenly went off in your back pocket. You sighed and saw it was just a random number, and were about to hang up to continue your conversation, when suddenly the numbers on the screen didn't look so random to you.

"Oh my god..." You mumbled, and Ven looked over at your screen curiously.

"What?" He asked, and you got to your feet.

"I have to take this. Um...you need to go to the school..." You said, still busy staring at the screen and not believing your eyes, "Roxas fell off his skateboard and messed himself up pretty badly. Sorry, I really need to go."

"Oh. Uh, okay...I guess." He mumbled as you rushed out of the room and left his apartment, eager to get to your phone call before they hung up.

Once you were outside you held the phone up to your ear and accepted the call, "Hello?"

_"Well, well, well. Would you look who finally decided to stop ignoring me?"_

"...Prompto?"

∞

"So, how is ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Lulu asked Ven once she returned to his apartment after seeing you step out.

"She's rattled, but she's still talking to me, so that's something..."

"See? All that worrying for nothing. I told you, if you did any real damage she would have done more than just call Aqua for help."

"I guess. I didn't hurt her, at least. I apologized, and she said she understands, but..." Ven sighed and took a sip of his soup to avoid talking to her anymore. She picked up on it right away, of course.

"What is it?" She asked, taking a break from organizing the books on his bookshelf to look over at him.

"Nothing." He grumbled.

"Ventus." She pressed, and he put the soup bowl down and stared into it.

"She told me..." He sighed again, and Lulu continued to organize his books to allow him to say what he wanted in his own time, "She said that I tried to...kiss her..."

"What?" Lulu laughed, and nearly dropped the book she was holding as she turned to look over her shoulder at him.

"I mean, not me, like I didn't do it, but... _he_  tried to kiss her." He quickly said.

"Well, that is a bit...odd. But I suppose it's preferable to his normal brand of trouble making." Lulu shrugged, putting the book down and moving over to sit on his bed beside him.

"I guess, but...I don't think it was a joke or a prank of his. Sometimes...it's like I can feel him there, watching her, and all these weird thoughts kind of bubble up out of nowhere...."

"What kind of thoughts?" Lulu asked, seeing that he was going red in the cheeks and looking intently at his hands as he cracked his knuckles to avoid looking at her.

"Like...I suddenly can't stop looking at her eyes, or her lips, or help myself from noticing things, like how soft her skin looks...the kind of thoughts that make me think I might know why he wanted to kiss her. The kind of thoughts that make me worry he might be in love with her or something."

"Ventus..." Lulu began, though she was hesitant to continue after he shot her a very pained look like he really didn't want to talk about this, "Are you sure you're not displacing your own feelings?" He scoffed, but she wasn't going to let him just brush it off, even if it was uncomfortable to discuss with her, "≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ is a lovely girl after all, and you have been spending quite a bit of time with her. Sometimes these things just happen."

"Not to me, they don't." He mumbled, and Lulu looked at him carefully. She knew he liked to keep his distance from people for fear he might lose control and hurt someone, even after all these years. It had been a good long while since he fully lost control like that, and she wondered if the reason he slipped up was because he was starting to let his guard down around you.

"It's perfectly natural to develop feelings for someone—"

"But what if they're not my feelings?"

"What if they are? Have you ever thought about it?"

"No." He shrugged, "I mean, she needs me to help her, and she trusts me implicitly because of that. It wouldn't be right to abuse that trust to try and weasel my way into her life like that."

"Give her more credit than that. And give yourself more credit, Ventus. She needs your magic to help her, yes, but she trusts you because of who you are. There are very few people either of you can relate to given your circumstances, and neither of you likes to let people see you for what you really are, but you are able see each other. That's not nothing. There's something to that  few can understand."

"I'm not going to put myself in the position to hurt anyone." He said very firmly, and she sighed.

"Very well then. I won't press the subject. Still, you should work to be more transparent with your emotions. You can't just numb your way through life and repress ever single feeling that comes your way. That's why you're in this predicament to being with. Maybe you should start a journal, or speak to a counselor."

"Yeah, okay." He rolled his eyes as he began to pull on his shoes.

"I'm sure that's the same response ≈≈≈≈≈≈ will give me when I suggest she does the same. You may not like it, but I won't have to two of you moping around feeling sorry for yourselves. You need to be honest with allow yourself and feel what you're feeling no matter how much it hurts. Otherwise it will just eat you up inside." She shook her head, wondering why it just so happened that the two of you were some of the most stubborn people she'd ever met. Maybe it was just another side effect of the stigma. It made you more resilient, and therefore a bit pig-headed.

"I have to get to the school. Apparently Roxas hurt himself." Ven said, both as a way to end the conversation and to excuse himself from the room.

∞

 _"So tell me why it is I had to call your mom to get in contact with you?"_  A cheery voice scolded you through the phone. By now you had wandered over to the Fountain Plaza and were sitting on the stone edge of the large heart shaped fountain.

"I don't know, I'm sorry! Things have kind of gotten away from me lately." You sighed, feeling terrible now that old friends from Midgar were finally calling you on forgetting about them.

_"Uh-huh. And that's why you changed your number."_

"I didn't change my number!" You rolled your eyes, knowing he was enjoying being dramatic about this, "My phone just got trashed on my first day here. I lost everyone's numbers, then I got wrapped up in life here, and you guys weren't able to get through and pull me back."

 _"Until now. Dun dun dunnnn"_ Prompto let out a cheery laugh, and you laughed along with him. You missed his laugh. You missed him. You hadn't seen him since the end of the last school year back in Midgar, since he went off to a summer camp right away. Every year since 7th grade, when he decided he wanted to lose some weight, he would go off to some adventure health camp. When he was younger he was a little bit chubby and preferred taking pictures of everyone else playing than participating himself. But then one day, he just decided he was going to turn it all around. If there was a specific reason why, he never told you. By the time you hit high school, he as thin and energetic as anyone, but he still went to the camp at the end of freshman year for old time's sake. It sucked because it meant you didn't get to see him all summer before leaving, but you were so proud of how much progress he was making and how hard he was working to lose weight.

"So what's been going on back there without me?" You asked, leaning back on your palm so you could look up at the dark Traverse Town sky, where the sun had gone and the stars were out despite it being just a little after 4:00. You were trying to find where the little bright dot of Gaia in the sky, but you could never really be certain you were looking at the right thing. Still, you liked to pretend you were looking at it.

 _"Well, it's been kind of boring, but at least it's been a little quieter."_  He laughed again, and you scoffed.

"Hey! What'd you bother calling for if you're just going to bully me?" You joked, and he snickered.

_"Because, I missed you! Besides, it hasn't really been that much quieter."_

"Ichigo?" You mused.

" _Ichigo."_  He confirmed.

You laughed a little, thinking at least some things hadn't changed. You felt like a completely different person some days now that you had geostigma, and some people were treating you differently—not intentionally, but you could see it all the same. You would catch Roxas and Cloud staring at you for any sign of anything being wrong, and you could feel a certain tension whenever you spoke to Riku, like conversation didn't flow quite as seamlessly as it used to. They didn't mean any harm with their concern, but the very fact they felt they needed to be concerned for you was enough to leave a bit of a bitter taste in your mouth. It was nice to see people could still treat you like nothing had changed. Of course, it was only because he didn't know the truth, but you were going to take any victory you could get.

"It's really great to hear your voice, Prompto. I've missed you too."

_"So, what has the great ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ Strife been up to that's made her so busy she forgets about her bestest friend in the whole wide world?"_

"What do you mean, I spoke to Ichigo last night?" You joked.

" _Don't you try and hurt me, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈."_ He scolded you.

"I don't know," You shrugged, thinking you honestly weren't really up to anything new in particular, "Just getting used to being here. Making new friend, going to school, homework, you know?"

_"If you were going to keep being lazy and boring you could have just stayed here."_

"Oh! I started magic training classes."

 _"Magic?"_ He laughed, " _You don't have magical bone in your body."_

"Turns out I do. All 210 of them."

_"210? I thought it was 208?....206?"_

"I've broken a few, so maybe it's even more."

_"Do broken bits count?"_

"Why wouldn't they?"

_"...We're getting off topic here...You can do magic?"_

"Yeah. Apparently I'm a lightning elemental."

_"Lightning, huh? Well, that makes sense. You've always been destructive."_

"Oh shut up." You laughed, "Well, go on then, what have you been up to?"

_"Nothing really. Everything here's been pretty much the same, give or take a loud mouthed little girl."_

"Ha-ha." You rolled your eyes.

 _"I'm serious. The only thing different about here is you're gone. Oh! And that I'm now friends with Royalty."_ You could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

"You don't mean..." You began, wondering if he was saying what you thought he was. The two of you always had a bit of a crush—yours a romantic kind, Prompto's a weird friend-crush kind of thing—on a boy who transferred into your school in 6th grade. He was supposedly a prince from another world sent to school in Midgar so he could try and lead a more normal childhood...but of course, everyone knew and treated him differently anyway.

_"That's right! You've been replaced by Noctis Lucis 'motherfuc-king' Caelum."_

You then heard a very tired, annoyed sounding voice distantly say, " _Don't call me that ever again."  
_ "He's there with you?" You gasped, instinctively reaching a hand up to smooth out your hair, as if he could see you.

"Well, yeah, how do you think I tracked you down without his princely spy technology." Prompto laughed.

 _"I'm going to slap you."_ Noctis sighed.

"You know, you could have emailed me." You sassed, and he scoffed.

_"What is this, the dark ages?"_

"Does Noctis even know who I am?"

 _"I dunno. Noct, do you know who ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ is?"_ Prompto asked, clearly enjoying himself.

"Don't ask him that!" You snapped.

_"Of course I do."_

_"Of course he does."_ Prompto snickered.

"Great..." You sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose, "Just great....Well, tell him hello for me...even though we've never spoken before." 

_"Whatever. So how's life, how's the town? Find anyone to knock you-know-who off his throne?"_

"He's sitting right next to you! Could you not?" You gave an exasperated sigh.

" _Oh, alright alight. So miss busy britches, what are you doing today?"_

"I'm going to a blitz game."

_"A blitz game? I thought your mom said you were sick?"_

"She said what?" You felt your heart sink into your stomach. He didn't sound like he knew what was wrong, but then again Prompto was always the one trying to cheer everyone else up, regardless of what he was really feeling.

_"She said the reason you might not have been in touch was because you're sick."_

"What else did she say?"

_"Nothing. But you know how your mother is. She loves worrying about you."_

"Yeah...she does..." You sighed, and he gave a nervous chuckle.

_"Alright, what's going on?"_

"What do you mean?"

_"You're being weird."_

"No I'm not." You snapped.

 _"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈."_ He deadpanned.

"I'm not."

_"...Okay..."_

"Just...what else did she tell you."

 _"≈≈≈≈≈≈, I've known you since we were in preschool. I know when somethings up with you. Now stop worrying about what she might have told me, and just tell me yourself."_ His tone was still pretty lightly and jokey, but you could tell he was taking this seriously now. At least a little.

"Alright...but..." You paused. At least you didn't have to tell him not to tell anyone. It wasn't like it mattered if people back in Midgar knew, really. You decided this was good, and that you wanted to tell him. It was so hard for you to spit the words out most of the time, but with him it was different. He was far away and telling him wouldn't really have an impact on your daily life. Plus, it gave you some practice saying it out loud.

_"Go on, you know you can tell me anything."_

"I have geostigma." You said, feeling like that was the most confident you had ever been when saying it.

He chuckled nervously,  _"Are you going through a tunnel? Because I think we have a bad connection. It sounded like you said you have—"_

"Geostigma, yeah."

 _"But...that's..."_ He seemed to be at a loss, but was fumbling through it,  _"I don't...that's really terrible, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. I'm so sorry, that sucks."_

"You don't need to tell me twice."

_"How long have you known?"_

"Oh, I dunno. We only found out I have it a little while ago...geo-fucking-stigma...I can't even say it without feeling like my stomach is doing flips. I swear, saying it is worse than having it somedays."

"...≈≈≈≈≈≈≈..." A small voice said from behind you, and you jumped and whipped around. Sora was standing a few feet away with bags of puffy paint and poster board, and an expression of pure disbelief and worry marring his normally smiling, cheery face.

"Oh god..." Your heart skipped a beat and you dropped your phone. Luckily it hit your knee and fell into the street rather than into the fountain again.

 _"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈? What was that? Hello?"_ You heard Prompto asking, probably hearing the clatter.

"Sorry, I have to go. I'll call you later." You quickly said as you rushed to pick up your phone before hanging it up and getting to your feet and turning to face Sora.

He was still staring at you with a slightly dropped jaw, his gym bag half falling off his shoulder and his grip on the shopping bags completely slack. He looked like he had been hit by a truck. 

"You, uh...you weren't supposed to hear that." You cleared your throat as you put your phone away and tried to smooth out your hair, but your fingers just ended up getting tangled in it.

"I-I didn't mean to eavesdrop...but I..I just over heard...and...I..."

"That's okay...Don't...don't worry about it. What are you doing here, anyway? Shouldn't you be getting ready for the game?" You asked, trying to sound casual and keep it together despite the panic you felt bubbling up in your gut.

"Yeah, that where I'm going now, but um...Roxas was supposed to get paint stuff from home, but he said he...I don't know, something about his skateboard and forgetting, so he asked me to grab it for him..." He said, maybe trying to pretend like he hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary, but he was having a hard time wiping the stunned look off his face.

You finally broke under his gaze and held your head in your hands as you sank down to your seat on the edge of the fountain again. You tried to take in a deep breath and let it out to calm yourself down, but it came out more like a staggered sob. To be honest, you probably weren't far from breaking down into tears.

"Oh please don't cry, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, I didn't...I didn't mean to upset you." Sora quickly sat down beside you, putting a hand on your shoulder and letting the bags he was carrying fall to the wayside.

"It's not your fault, I don't know why I was...I don't...I..." You sighed and did your best to pull it together before any tears managed to slip out. You sniffled and blew your hair out of your eyes, then tried to smile for him, "It's okay, really."

"...Is it?" He was quieter than you had ever heard him.

"Yeah." You nodded weakly, pinching the bridge of your nose just to make sure no tears came out. You told yourself you were done crying about this, and wanted to keep true to that. You just felt so rattled. You went from finally feeling confident in owning the stigma, and then it crashed down on you so fast it gave you emotional whiplash.

"I'm so sorry. For...everything. For overhearing, scaring you, for you having...the stigma...I'm just  _so_  sorry."

"It's alright." You straightened up, and decided to just accept what just happened and move on. "Really. I would have told you about it eventually anyway. I mean, this isn't exactly the kind of thing that just goes away, so I guess I'll have to tell everyone about it sooner or later."

"Don't worry, I won't tell a soul. I swear." He took your hand and looked you in the eye like he was making a solemn oath.

You gave his hand a good squeeze, "I trust you, Sora. That's not why I'm upset. It's just...I have very little control over my life right now, and who I decide to tell about my stigma is kind of the only thing I have left now—"

"And I took that away from you...≈≈≈≈≈≈, I am so sorr—"

"Hey Sora, I have geostigma." You cut him off and he closed his mouth to stop apologizing, but he still looked very uncomfortable and unsure, "There. All better."

He gave you a brief smile before staring down at your hands with a worried expression. You weren't sure if he still felt like he really shouldn't know this about you, or if he was now more concerned with what you having geostigma meant, but either way this wasn't the Sora you were used to seeing. He looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't quite think of the right words. The timer on his watch went off, but he hit the button to shut it off just quickly as it started.

"What was that?" You asked.

"Nothing important." He shrugged.

"It's a blitz alarm, isn't it?"

"No." He got a sheepish look on his face.

"Sora." You scolded, and he sighed.

"It was my 5 minutes to the pre-game meeting alarm, but it doesn't matter now."

"Of course it matters." You said, getting to your feet and taking the shopping bag that was left forgotten by Sora on the ground near his feet.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, come on. I don't care about blitzball. I want to talk." He was being resistant to you pulling him along, but ultimately began walking with you towards the school.

"There's nothing to talk about, really." You shrugged, "I have geostigma. It sucks. It hurts. It's not gonna go away. That's about all there is to it."

"It' just...Are you okay?" He gave you a sympathetic look as he took one of the shopping bags from you to carry.

"I'm trying to be. Some days are harder than others."

"Well, if you ever need anything just let me know. I'll be there for you."

"Anything?" You eyed him.

"Anything at all." He nodded confidently.

"Even a 2 a.m. ice cream run?"

"I'll go to every store in town until I find whatever flavor you want. I'll make the sprinkles myself if I have to." He said and you laughed.

"What are sprinkles even made of?"

"I dunno. I bet sugar is involved. I'll wing it." He returned your grin and laughed a little himself.

"See, this is why I'm actually kind of relieved you know. You're a really good friend, and you have such a big heart. I'm lucky to have you."

"Damn right you are." He beamed, happily slinging his gym bag up higher on his shoulder so it could handle the new pep in his step. "So...is this why you've been hanging around my brother so much?"

"Roxas?"

"Ventus." 

You laughed, thinking about your earlier conversation with Roxas, "Why do you both do that?"

"Do what?"

"Call him 'Ventus.' Literally everyone else just says Ven."

"Well...Miss Lulu calls him Ventus." Sora shrugged and you hummed in realization.

"Well, you got me there." You scratched your cheek, "But still. She's the only one, and he doesn't like it."

"He doesn't?"

"Well, he's bitched about it once or twice when she does it, though I doubt he'd say anything to you guys. But anyways, yeah, he's been helping me out lately."

"Can you even heal geostigma? I mean, I know he's good but...it's chronic, right?"

"Yeah, it is. Not even he's that good. He can help with the side effects though."

"It's funny....you know, I feel like I can kind of remember..." He paused, getting a serious look on his face again as he got lost in thought.

"Remember what?"

"When we were kids, I remember there were days when mom wouldn't let us seen Ven. You know, back when he was living with us. Like, I remember him being a great big brother most of the time, but then some days he was like a completely different person. He would just go crazy and destroy things and yell and scream at the top of his lungs all day long. I think...it's because he was in pain..."

"Sora, what are you getting at?"

"The reason he had to become so good at White Magic...he has it too, doesn't he?"

You stopped dead in your tracks, gaping at him. No one ever gave him any credit, but Sora was actually really astute about serious things. "I can't answer that." You finally said, knowing how hard it was for you to tell people and how hurt you would feel if someone told others about you having geostigma without asking you first.

"It's alright. I think I've always known. I mean, I didn't know  _what_ exactly, but I knew there was something. I've tried talking with Roxas about it, but he really doesn't remember. Don't worry, I won't say anything."

"It's terrible, isn't it? He was a sick little boy struggling with his symptoms, and they just kicked him out. Like it was nothing."

"It wasn't nothing." Sora admitted, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly as he dug up some more old memories he was probably better leaving alone, "My parents almost got a divorce over it."

"Oh...I...I had no idea, Ven...never tells it that way."

"They fought constantly when he was there, and it only got worse when he was gone. I think it's because my mother felt guilty, but my father never really seemed to care one way or another, which just made her more emotional and then he would get angry she was upset. Then a couple years passed, and they found out Ven was way better off with Master Eraqus anyway, so they never really brought it up again. It became another skeleton in the closet, until a couple years ago when Lulu moved here and brought him with her."

"Eraqus? Who's that? I thought he went to Lulu."

"He's a magical trainer—one of the best—and sure, Miss Lulu was there too, but she was only like, 20 something at the time. It's not like she was looking to adopt a kid. She only met Ven because she was studying magic under Master Eraqus at the same time. She didn't even really come into the picture for him until a couple years after."

"How do you know all this?"

"I saw the letters Master Eraqus would sent with updates. Well, my dad tried to have them all thrown away, but sometimes I would take them out of the trash and see what was going on with him. I think Roxas was scared of Ven, or at least he was scared enough of dad to leave it alone, because he never really seemed interested in finding out anything about Ven."

"I hate to say it, but I really don't think I like your father very much. I mean, I've never met him, but..."

Sora laughed, "That's the general feeling most people have about him, don't worry."

"I just don't get it. You're all such sweet boys, but the things I hear about your parents...I mean...yikes"

"They're coming to the game tonight, you could probably meet them if you want."

"I don't know that I want that." You admitted, and he laughed again.

"Yeah, fair enough. Maybe you should wait until it's just my mom....But you know..." He sighed, "They're not bad people. My dad is severe, and serious to a fault, but he's not cruel. They made sure he had proper arrangements, with someone who could actually take care of him where they couldn't. They maybe didn't have to make him some dark family secret we're not allowed to talk about, and they can be harsh, but...it was an impossible situation. We're all just people, you know? Trying to handle all the curveballs life throws at us. We don't alway make the right choices, but we're trying." 

By now the two of you had walked from the Fountain Plaza to the steps of the school and were starting to go up, so you knew it was time to wrap up any serious conversation. "Hey, Sora...it's really great to be able to talk to you like this." You put an appreciative hand on his shoulder and gave him a small smile as you looked into his warm ocean blue eyes. 

"Oh, yeah. Of course." He grinned, and you could see the traces of a faint blush rising in his cheeks as he looked back into your eyes. "You can tell me anything, you know. Your secrets are my secrets. That's my policy."

"Thank you."

"What are friends for?" He shrugged, giving you a warm smile that made it all but impossible to resist the urge to hug him. In fact, you didn't even try to resist. You pulled him into a hug and held close to him for a bit, enjoying the comfort of the moment. "Everything's gonna be okay. I promise." 

**∞**

When you got to the school's front courtyard, you saw all of your friends from your grade gathered around waiting for something. You realized they were probably waiting for you—or at least the paint supplies you were carrying—as Selphie's face lit up when she saw you. Sora had to dash off to his blitz meeting, so he left the paint with you and you handed it off to Selphie and Kairi, who seemed to know what they were doing much better than you did.

While they began painting everyone's faces, you made your way over to Roxas, who was still insisting on using those crutches. You rolled your eyes at the sight of him and reached into your pocket for your phone as you walked over to him, dialing Ven's number so you could chew him out for not coming to help his brother yet.

"What are you doing?" Roxas gave you a tired look as you stood right next to him and crossed your arms while waiting for the phone to connect.

"Shush." You scolded him as the phone began ringing.

 _"What?"_  Ven grumbled at you in a snippy tone.

"Forgetting something?"

 _"No."_  He scoffed, then there was a slight pause,  _"Am I?"_

"Roxas?" You reminded him, and Roxas sighed.

"Who are you talking to?"

 _"I couldn't find him."_ Venanswered simply.

"He's out in front of the school. Where are you?"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈." Roxas was starting to get real suspicious now.

 _"My office. Hang on, I'll be right out."_ He said, then the line went dead.

You pocket your phone, and turned to see Roxas glaring at you.

"What are you up to?"

"I hired a stripper for you." You said dryly, and he leaned over on one crutch in an irritated fashion as he blew his hair out of his eyes.

"You know you're not as funny as you think you are."

"Sorry, I didn't hear a word of that. Too busy looking at your patch up job there, champ." You said, looking at the bandaid he haphazardly slapped over the large scrape on his chin. The tiny bandaid wasn't doing much of anything.

"Shut up."

"Hey, that's my line." You shot back. 

"Whoa, Roxas, what happened?" Ven asked, walking up from behind after exiting the school and rounding the front garden.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈!" Roxas shot you a glare before Ven was even in his eyeshot.

"I'm not apologizing." You shrugged, crossing your arms as Ven made his way over to Roxas.

"You know you can come to me for stuff like this, right?" Ven said, seeing the bloody palms and crutches from a mile away. Ven stood beside you, as if he was afraid to do any work on Roxas unless he was asked to by Roxas.

"I know that...I just didn't want to get anyone worked up." Roxas mumbled sheepishly, looking away from the two of you.

"He fell off his skateboard and was scared you wouldn't think he was cool anymore if you found out." You said, and Ven laughed as Roxas lifted up a crutch pressed the bottom of it into your foot while glaring daggers at you.

"Is that all you're worried about? Come on, Rox. You're my little brother. I'm never gonna think you're cool." Ven smirked, and Roxas shot you another glare as his cheeks flared up bright pink.

"He's kidding." You blinked dryly at him in response to his glare as you yanked your foot out from under his crutch, "Now sit down, so he can get a proper look at you."   
Roxas grumbled something about hating you a little bit as he hopped over to take a seat on the cement ring around the garden, and Ven moved to sit beside him.

"For the record, I was." Ven shrugged, holding out a hand for Roxas to take, which he very tentatively did. Ven laughed at the terrible bandage wrap around Roxas palms that wasn't even covering most of the torn up skin, "Looks like someone could use some first aid lessons."

"Shut up." Roxas flushed as Ven began to unwind the loose and bloody bandages.

"Hey ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, come here! Your turn!" Selphie called, an you decided Roxas was in good hands and left Ven to take care of things while you went off to get your face painted, "So, what can I do for you? TTA on the tummy? A blitzball on your cheek? I'm pretty good at this, you know." She said, and you agreed, looking at the very well done blitzball that was on her own cheek.

"Yeah, that looks great, but I really think I just want a number 4 and a number 11." You said, pointing to your cheeks.

"Ooooo 4 and 11? Who are the lucky boys?" She grinned as she had you sit down on the garden and squeezed out some black paint onto a paper plate and dipped her brush in it and began swirling it around.

"You know there are girls on the team too, right?" You gave her a look, which she shrugged off as she brought the brush up to your right cheek with a steady hand.

"Oh, fine. It's not like you actually make it fun to live to make it fun to live vicariously through you." She sighed, making a gentle downwards stroke on your cheek, then crossing it to make a plus sign, then connecting the top with one side to make an artistic 4.

"Sora and Zack." You sighed, thinking she just looked so defeated.

"What?"

"4 and 11. It's Sora and Zack. I promised Sora I'd get his number, and Zack...I," You shrugged, "I dunno."

"You dunno what?" A large smile broke out on her face as she moved over to the other cheek and began making the 11.

"He just...He did something nice for me today, so I thought I would..."

"Do something nice for him?"

"It's just face paint." You gave her a dry look.

"You're right. We should paint 'thanks Zack!' or something on your stomach so he'll see it when he takes your shirt off!"

"Why would he be taking my shirt off?" You asked, admittedly pretty stupidly, and she gave you a dry look right back. "That's the sluttiest thing I've ever heard."

"Fine. It was just a suggestion." She shrugged, getting back to her paint job. You both fell quiet for a moment and then she sighed heavily.

"What?"

"Nothing." She shook her head.

"What?" You raised your eyebrow at her.

"I just don't get you."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. Is it...is he really stupid or something?"

"No, he's not stupid!" You rolled your eyes at her, "He's just a little silly."

"Then what? Are you not attracted to him? I mean...have you seen him?"

"Sel..."

"Oh please, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. Little girls kiss frogs and hope they turn into Zack." She gave you a knowing look, and you ran a hand through your hair.

"Yeah, fine, you're right. He's very good looking."

"So..."

"So what?" You shrugged. 

"So what's the problem then? I can see he's crazy about you, and I barely know him!"

"There is no problem." You ran a hand through your hair and she raised an eyebrow, "Okay, the problem is that I'm just fine with only being friends. I'd prefer it, actually. I need more friends. I don't need a boyfriend."

"Why not? What's the real difference? The only difference between a boyfriend and a best friend is some kissin' and some cuddlin'. And that's not exactly a bad perk, especially if it's with Zack Fair." She smiled to herself and sighed contently as she pulled back the brush and began to fan your face to dry the black paint so she could go back over it with gold.

"People get hurt to easily in relationships. It's not like you can break up with your friends."

"Sure you can. What do you call what happened with Riku and Kairi?"

"She cheated on him while they were in a relationship."

"...Okay, bad example...What about," She hummed as she thought, "Alright, I got nothing. But friends can fight and fall apart in just the same way. I think it's worth the risk to have someone there for you in a way no one else is. Someone who listens to your shitty day and actually cares, how your feeling, they guard your secrets with their lives, always fight for you, cheer you up no matter how depressed you're feeling," Her list went on, and you couldn't help but starting to think that there kinda was someone like that in your life. He was insufferable most of the time, but then there were moments when you didn't know how you'd get through the day without him. "There's nothing better than that!" Then you noticed she stopped talking, but knew you couldn't give her the satisfaction of being right, so you had shut her down some way.

"And you get to kiss and cuddle?" You asked with sarcastic enthusiasm. 

"And you get to kiss and cuddle." She nodded, smiling brightly as she pulled the brush away and set the paper plate aside. "Alright, you're good to go—oh! Wait! Finishing touches." She grinned as she turned around and grabbed something or another from the crafts bags.

"What are you—" Before you could finish she turned back around with a handful of something or another and blew into her hand, sending gold glitter flying into your face and hair. It took you a few second to blink it away from your eyes so you could open them up and glare heavily at her as she grabbed a fan brush and began to sweep it off your face lightly.

"Old cheerleader's trick." She winked and continued to smile and fan away the excess glitter despite your obvious 'done with your shit' stare. Now it looked like there was a slightly glittery glow on your face when you caught the light instead of looking like a crafts experiment gone wrong.

"Shouldn't you be off polishing your pompoms?"

"Oh ≈≈≈≈≈≈. You don't polish pompoms. You floof them."

"I'm gonna floof you."

"That's really intimidating." She mocked you, and you got to your feet and did a little stretch for your back after being hunched for so long so she could paint you.

"I didn't know you were a cheerleader." You said as you stretched.

"Yup! In the spring, since it's not like the athletes can really hear you cheering for them in the blitz sphere."

"There are no other fall sports that could use some cheering?"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈ we go on the school trip in the fall. There's no point. We only do blitz because it's such a short season....and well, everyone loves blitz."

"Sure seems that way..." You said, looking at the masses of people who were climbing the stairs to get to the school.

"Hey, think we can charge people to have their faces painted?" She asked.

"That's not a very peppy attitude." You scoffed.

"Yeah, whatever. Now scoot. Mama's got a business to run." She shooed you away and began calling out to the crowd "Face paint! $5! Get your face painted here!"

You shook your head and laughed as you returned where Ven and Roxas were sitting a few feet away.

"Well hey there spirit bomb, how's it going?" Ven snickered as you walked up.

"Have you fixed Roxas up yet, so I can hit you with his crutches?" You responded reflexively as you sat down beside him. All the bandages had been peeled off Roxas, and he was looking good as new except for his chin, which Ven was currently working on. Roxas' face was angled up at the sky at an awkward angle, but he still fidgeted around so he could look at you after Ven's comment about your paint and glitter.

"You're a real charmer, you know that?" Ven mused, putting two fingers of the scabbed, raw skin on Roxas' jaw gingerly. Right before your eyes the skin began to seal itself up and smooth out. There was some bloody residue on his skin, but Ven had some kind of wet wipe that he pulled out and mopped it all away with. It had a very familiar floral smell, and you had to resist smacking him.

"Is that one of my makeup remover wipes?" You sighed in irritation.

"What? They're handy." He shrugged.

"For removing makeup!" You actually did swat him this time.

"And other things. Roxas doesn't mind, right?"

"Nope." Roxas shrugged.

"Why would he?" You clenched your jaw, but Ven just snickered and continued to dab.

"Alright, I think we're done. You're gonna live." Ven tossed the wipe at you as he clapped Roxas on the shoulder. You crinkled your nose and threw the wipe back at Ven, who made like he was going to throw it back again.

"Throw it again and I'm shoving it down your throat."

"Such a firecracker, this one." Ven nudged Roxas.

"Yeah, she's a regular quipster." Roxas laughed lightly but also took away the wipe to stop the two of you from bickering anymore, "Are you staying for the game?"

"Oh, I don't...um..." Ven looked between the two of you, and you shrugged and nodded, "I guess I could stay."

"Uh...Your parents are going to be there..." You said, thinking that might make a smidge of difference to him. Roxas clammed right up, and Ven got a very conflicted look on his face. He didn't answer right away, and then his expression changed as he saw something while looking out at the crowed of people still going into the school

"So will yours..." He said, and you looked over and sighed at the sight of your mother and Basch..  

"Great..." As if on cue, your mother noticed you sitting there on the center garden and changed her walking path so she was making a b-line for you.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, we need to talk." She called over the crowd, but she was still far enough away you could reasonably pretend not to have heard her. 

"Yikes." Roxas mumbled, knowing what that look on a mother's face meant.

"I'll face my parents if you face yours?" You said to Ven, who rubbed the back of his neck.

"I think I'm probably just going to hide from mine, but sure."

"That's probably a good idea." Roxas sighed.

"Hey, you know I don't think we'll be able to get seats if we don't leave right this second." You said, getting to your feet and rushing off into the school weather the boys were following behind you or not.

∞

The game was way more exciting than you would have ever thought possible as someone who didn't really care much for sports. You managed to slip your parents and find seats in the gym by your friends. You'd never been to a blitz game before, so you were kind of expecting it to be like the practices you had watch, but you were dead wrong. The crowd cheering and the intensity of the competition took things up to a whole new level. You were feeling kind of anxious about being there for a while, thinking your mom might sneak up on you at any moment, but your whole mood and outlook changed when the blitz players came out and Zack picked you out of the crowd and saw his number painted on your face. You'd never seen him look so happy. He even got so excited he punched Gippal in the arm to get his attention and make him look over at you, too.

Then the game got started, and you got lost in the chatter and excitement. It looked like Ven did too, because neither of you were checking over your shoulders for your parents after the first quarter. You didn't know who the opposing team was or where Daybreak Town even was, but as soon as they stepped into the gym you knew you hated them. They were pretty good too, so It was a tight game that was very exciting. You knew Gippal, Tidus, and Wakka were excellent players, but when the pressure was on they were just amazing to watch. Of course, Tifa, Cloud, Zack, and Riku were all also great players, and in the last quarter when the team was up, Sora got to go in and even made a few nice plays himself.

By the time the final buzzer sounded, your team had a comfortable lead and every jumped to their feet to applaud and cheer the victory.

The stands began to empty slowly, and a few people began to head down to the gym floor as the players went back to the locker rooms. All of your friends got to their feet and began leading the way down to the floor. Ven was in front of you and he certainly didn't know what was going on, so you deferred to Roxas.

"What are we doing?" You asked him, following along behind Ven, but confused all the same.

"Waiting for the team to get back out here." He shrugged, then sighed at your still confused expression, "As soon as they are done with their post-game meeting and changing into regular clothes, they come out those doors and we hang out a little down here."

"Holy shit!" You stopped in your tracks after following his finger to the locker room door. That wasn't what caught your attention though. What did was the sight of two very intimidating looking people waiting outside the locker room door; Mr. and Mrs. Rostar. Their mother looked almost just like that picture of her you had seen in their house, with chocolate brown hair combed back into a French twist and bright blue eyes you could see even all the way across the room, just like her boys. The only different between her picture was how tired she looked. There were deep lines under her eyes, and they seemed a little puffy to you. She still looked like a movie star to you, but you could kind of see what Roxas was talking about when he said she looked a little plastic. Her cheeks had this kind of shine that only people with Botox had, and you got the feeling Roxas wasn't joking about the lip filler either. But more interesting to you than their mother was Mr. Rostar. You'd never seen anyone who looked quite so imposing. He was very tall, and looked every bit the son of the famous Ansem the wise, with his blonde hair, high cheekbones, sharp jaw, and the stern look to his orangey-red eyes. You didn't like his eyes. They reminded you of the golden-eyed intruder hiding in Ven.

"So...I'm gonna go." Ven said, seeing his parents after your outburst, and losing all his nerve. You couldn't blame him. You wouldn't want to see Mr. Rostar angry either.

"Good call. He looks mad." Roxas sighed.

"He always looks mad." Ven rubbed the back of his neck.

"Only when he's talking to you, I bet." You said, and he shot you a tried, irritated look.

"I'll see you later, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. Rox-pox." He said, before dipping into the crowd of people trying to leave the gym.

"So, I get when he doesn't want to talk to our parents, but what's up with you and yours?" Roxas asked as he watched Ven bob and weave through the crowd as he practically sprinted out of there.

"I don't have a problem with my parents. It's my mother I have a problem with."

"Oh. Well okay then. That's different." He said sarcastically.

"Shut up, R—"

"Yeah, 'shut up, Roxas.' I got it." He rolled his eyes.

"Well, if you would just do it we'd all stop saying it." You shrugged, then you saw the first of the blitz players come out of the locker room. Cloud and Tifa stepped out, and your parents quickly found them and walked over to chat. You decided to stick way clear of that and instead found Gippal over talking to his family. "Oh, I gotta see where all that came from. Talk to you later, Roxy."

Gippal's mother was a heavy set woman who was actually pretty short considering how tall Gippal was. Still, that didn't stop her from grabbing him around the shoulders and yanking him down to her level so she could plant kisses on his cheeks and forehead as she gushed in Al Bhed at him. You assumed the little blonde boy standing next to him was his younger brother, and the big bald guy was his father. You knew he had a younger brother named Maqui from very brief mentions of one, but this was your first time seeing him. He looked just like a mini-Gippal; big messy blonde hair, tan skin, and bright green eyes. It was like looking at Gippal through a fun-house mirror.

"Oh! Sus, drec ec ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, Cloud's cecdan (Mom, this is ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, Cloud's sister)" Gippal said as he saw you approach, looking for any reason to push her away so she would stop kissing him and he could stand up at full height again. Your Al Bhed was still pretty terrible, but you caught that he was introducing you at least.

"Hela du saad oui. (Nice to meet you.)" You said, looking at Gippal for confirmation that you said it properly.

He nodded, but it just wouldn't be Gippal if he didn't add, "Your accent is still terrible, though."

His mother rolled her eyes and pushed him out of the way, and said in her own pretty thick accent. "Nonsense. Your accent is beautiful." She took you by your shoulders and pull you in for a kiss on the left cheek, "and so are you. You ignore my Gippal. Kesb puo (gimp boy)." She looked over and rolled her eyes at him

"Oh we try to, believe me." Zack said, walking up and throwing an arm around Gippal and putting his other hand on his little brother's head to muss up his hair.

"Ur, so pypo! Oui fana cu fuhtanvim uid drana! (Oh, my baby! You were so wonderful out there!)" Gippal's mother turned at the sound of Zack voice and she caught him in a lung crushing hug.

"Ouin pypo ec ujan rana...(Your baby is over here...)" Gippal crossed his arms.

"Oh of course he is." She let go of Zack and went back to smothering Gippal in kisses.

"We'll see you at Denny's, right Gips?" Zack asked as the two of you began to slowly make your way away from their family gathering. 

"I'm going home. Denny's is for winners." Gippal gave him a dry, exasperated look like Zack should have known that. 

"Now, I may know next to nothing about blitz, but didn't you guys win?" You asked Zack blankly as you got out of Gippal's earshot. 

"Yeah, but he didn't keep a clean sheet, so he's mad."

"...Did you miss the part about not knowing anything about blitz?" 

"He got scored on. He doesn't like that." Zack laughed, trying to dumb it down for you without seeming patronizing but doing a poor job of it. 

"I'll learn the rules for you one of these days. Ooo, maybe I can play you one day." 

"Have you been reading my dream journal? Because I swear, that is uncanny." He gave you a goofy grin and you couldn't help but laugh. 

"That's a joke right?" 

"Of course it's not. I take my dream journal very seriously." He said, losing his smile and all trace of joking from his expression for a couple of seconds before you both broke down into laughter. As the two of you slowly began to settle down, he looked over at you with a poorly hidden smirk,  "So...nice face you got there."

"Thanks, I made it myself." You gave him a cheesy grin.

"I meant the paint job." He finally gave up trying to play it cool and let a big, bright smile take over his face.

"I'm aware." You shook your head at him as he continued to look at you, shifting his head side to side a little so the gym lights made the glitter act up.

"Ooo, sparkly." He grinned and you laughed.

"Yeah, I know. Selphie's work. All of it." You gestured at the glitter and the numbers, and his smile got a little wider as he saw his number sitting pretty on your cheek again.

"Did I ever tell you I like that you hang out with her?" He continued to grin at you with a look of great approval.

"Trust me, she likes you too." You rolled your eyes.

"What can I say, I'm a likable guy." He shrugged.

"Settle down, she doesn't like you that much. She only stalks you after school on Mondays. Gippal get three days."

"What a coincidence, Monday is Reno's day for stalking you, you should see--hey!" He beamed at you, tilting his head slightly so he could see the small yellow and black flower tucked behind your ear, "You got my flowers."

"I did, and I love them. Thank you, it was really sweet of you to get them for me." You said, getting up on your toes so you could give him a nice proper hug. As soon as you got close to him, you started laughing again, "Why do you smell like lilacs?"

His hair was wet, which could have been from the blitz game, but you figured he must have hopped into the shower in the locker room before coming out here, and used some kind of floral body wash or something.

"Oh, I took Tifa's shampoo. Gippal and Axel used all of mine trying to make a bubble bath in the toilet."

You pulled away from him enough that you could look him in the eye and raised an eyebrow, "What...?"

"Well, they said their feet were sore and tired." He shrugged, like that would suddenly make a toilet bowl bubbling foot bath make sense.

"Oh, okay." You said in the most sarcastic tone you could manage.

"Standard post-game procedure." He shrugged nonchalantly, and you blinked slowly at him as you tried to take in the all the stupid.

"...Oh, okay..." You repeated, throwing on even more sarcasm to prove your point that it literally made no sense to you. 

"You know what? Don't worry about it. You wouldn't understand."

"You're not wrong there." You mused, thinking no matter how much time you spent with them, you'd never quite understand half the things the junior boys got up to.

"So what were you doing over there with Gippal's family, I thought Cloud was one of the first guys out of the locker room?"

"I wouldn't know. I've been avoiding my parents, and I figure he probably went to them first. Plus, I was with Ven, and as soon as he caught sight of his parents he bolted. Gippal was the first person I saw after that, so I went over."

"Oh yikes. Can't say I blame Venven. Mr. Rostar is the scariest guy in any room, so I understand why he bolted."

"Yeah. I've never even seen the dude before tonight, and I can already see where Ven's coming from."

"Ha, you've clearly never met him before either, otherwise you wouldn't call him 'dude' like that."

"Why, is he the least chill dude-bro you've ever met?" You rolled your eyes, thinking he called everyone he met a dude just as much as you did.

"Something like that." He laughed, then it looked like he just remembered something, "Oh! Did you sign up for the weekend survival camp?"

"I did." You nodded, knowing exactly where he was going with this..

"Yes! The dream team is one step closer to formation. We are going to have so much fun out there."

"Fun? It's survival camp." You shot him a look, but his smile didn't waver. 

"I'm bringing stuff for s'mores!" He beamed.

"Of course you are."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, there you are." Basch said, a hand landing on your shoulder from behind. You glared at Zack for not warning you he was coming, but Zack gave an innocent shrug, having completely missed seeing Basch walk up since he was busy looking at you.

"Hey, I didn't know you guys were here." You said turning around with the best smile you could pull as you came face to face with Basch and saw Cloud, Tifa, and your mother behind him.

"Well, we tried calling you to ask where you were sitting but—"

"My phone's dead." You shrugged quickly.

"I see." Your mother said skeptically.

"Fair, what part of stay away from my family don't you understand?" Basch sighed at Zack, who just shot him a sheepish look and shrugged.

"I thought you just meant last night."

"I didn't." Basch glared at him, but he didn't truly seem angry or upset, and everyone knew it, "Anyway, we're going to head home now for dinner." Basch said giving you a very specific look like he meant it was time to go.

"Actually, the team was going to go to Denny's for a victory meal and I was going to—" You began, not wanting anything to do with a family dinner at him, but you got interrupted.

"Denny's got cancelled actually, sorry." Cloud chipped in, and you tried your hardest not to glare at him. Zack also shot him a curious look, because clearly Denny's had not been cancelled, but he wasn't about to question Cloud on that in front of everyone.

"O...kay...I guess we should get going then..." You sighed and began walking for the exit, not waiting for any of the rest of your family to catch up.

∞

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, talk to your mother." Cloud finally said after speeding up his pace so he could walk beside you. He had been walking Tifa just a little ways behind you, your parents just behind them, but he decided it was time to try and get you to talk.

"You're supposed to be on my side." You kept your voice quiet and didn't bother to look over at him or uncrossing your arms as you kept up your Olympic speed walker's pace.

"I am on your side, but—"

"No! No buts. You either are, or you aren't."

"It's been days. How long are you going to box her out?"

"Just until I move out for college." You shrugged.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈..."

"You understand that she did this to me in a way, right?" You shot him a scathing look, and he fell quiet. He still kept pace with you, but he wasn't about to say anything after that. "Sorry, that was pointed..."

"No, I mean...you have every right to be upset. You do. It's just...She's upset too. I think it would be best for both of you if would talk to each other."

"Oh, well I didn't realize she was upset. Hang on, let me just go talk to her right now." You began, and he gave you a stern look.

"Shut up. You know I didn't mean it like that."

"I don't see how it's any of your business." You brushed him off, but he was adamant. Clearly your parents had put him up to this. You just wondered what they were holding over his head to get him to be this persistent.

"I'm your brother. That makes it my business."

"Then be on my side, damn it!" You shoved him lightly and he sighed.

"I'm sorry, I want to be. But they're guilting me."

"Aww, that must be very hard for you."

"Don't be a dick. One conversation, even if you don't mean it." He pleaded.

"I'm a good liar, but I'm not that good." You shrugged.

"Oh please, yes you are." He scoffed.

"Okay, well I don't want to."

"And you only ever get to do what you want? Come on." He gave you a look, and you sighed.

"Fine."

"And try and be nice." 

"Fine."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈..." He didn't seem to believe you, which was probably fair.

"I only promise to try."

"This'll end well." He mused sarcastically and you sighed, knowing he was right.

When you got home you went straight to your room for the bathroom to wash off your face paint, knowing the chances of this not getting ugly were slim, and you didn't want to be covered in glitter and paint while your mother was screaming at you. You found Ven in you room, sitting at your desk with his feet up.

"Oh, hey. Fancy meeting you here." He barely raised his eyes from the book in his lap as you came in.

"Hey." You sighed as you walked into the bathroom and began washing your face.

"What's wrong? You sound grumpy."

"My parents are going to gang up on me at dinner, make me talk to my mom. It's gonna be a huge disaster. I'll get you tickets."

"Oooo what's for dinner?" He asked, getting to his feet.

"Really? That's what you got out of that?" You shot him a look over your shoulder after shoveling water into your face, so the paint was running down your cheeks as you glared at him, "Why don't I go call your parents over here, make this a double feature?"

"Stop it. This will be good for you. You still have some semblance of a relationship with your mother. You can still fix things. I'm a lost cause. That's just bringing dynamite to a dinner party."

"Why do you always get to weasel out of things but I have to trip dick first into conflict every single time?"

"Maybe it's because I don't use expressions like that." He shrugged, leaning on the door frame of the bathroom as he watched you scrub at your cheeks.   

"Whatever. Let's get this over with...." You sighed, grabbing a towel and drying your face before looking in the mirror to try and mentally prepare yourself what was about to go down. 

"Hey, if things get ugly and you need a medic, you know I've got your back." He said, and the two of you began to make your way out of your room and down to the dining room. 

"You repair many ripped new ones in your day?" You asked, smirking lightly. 

"Wouldn't be my first." He shrugged. 

"Well alright then. Let's get this over with..."

**∞**

**I have literally been trying to write the scene that follows for a solid 2 weeks, so you know what? We're just gonna end it here. Boom. Problem solved.**


	11. Chapter 11

**So, this one is long. I mean, they're all long, but this one is really, really quite long. I knew where I wanted this chapter to end, and didn't quit writing until I got there. I thought about punking out near the middle to cut you guys a break, but I really want to move on to the next story arch so I decided to keep going until we got where I wanted. So strap in, kiddos! Get yourself some water and a cozy seat...you'll be here a while.**

**Also, there's a bit of FFXV lore coming into the mix this chapter, but don't worry. It's not terribly spoilery and actually I'm adapting some things to make them fit better into my story. So not only is some of it not spoiler related, it's also been twisted from its original in-game purpose so you really don't even need to worry about it giving anything away.**

**I've also decided to throw in a little extra scene that takes place just a bit before the end of the last chapter, so bear with the awkward time skip once that scene ends. It'll say 'back to now' or 'present' or something dumb. Just roll with it.**

** Chocobuck hunters: **

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**•And as always, you get $1 per typo/mistake you point out. Don't worry, you're not nit-picking and you're not being an asshole, really. I'm asking for your help finding them, so don't be shy. If I do it this way, then I don't have to send it to an editor who might take a few days to get it back to me. I've already made you wait long enough, so let's just get on with it. Lord knows something always slips through to the final draft, anyways.** **Please remember these bucks only apply if you also leave a comment about story content in some way as well. Just saying 'hey, you fucked up here' (which is totally fine, because I fuck up** **_everywhere_ ** **) then peacing out doesn't qualify you for bucks.**

**Let's get to it!**

**∞**

Noctis was sitting in the back of the Regalia with Prompto, Ignis up front driving them home from school like usual. He was resting his chin on his hand, not really paying attention as Prompto and Ignis chatted away about something or another.

"By the way, I was able to track down that number you were asking about." Ignis said, and Prompto almost jumped out of his seat.

"Wh—Really?" Prompto gasped, then let out an excited chuckle, "Ooh, I knew you'd come through Iggy! You're the best."

"Nonsense. Anyone with an internet connection could have found it." Ignis brushed it off, completely ignoring all the bouncing around Prompto was doing in the back seat and debating which route to take after seeing the traffic up ahead.

"Well, I've been looking for weeks!"

"Not very hard, apparently." Ignis retorted quietly, pushing his glasses up his nose absently.

"So come on, out with it! What's the number?" He was almost shaking he was so excited. He raced to pull his phone out, knocking into Noctis in the process.

"Would you chill out?" Noctis grumbled, repositioning his head in a more comfortable way against his palm so he could go back to trying to nap.

Ignis recited the number for Prompto and he eagerly put it into his phone and hit the call button before Ignis could finish explaining that it was a home phone number and not the cell number he was looking for. 

_"Strife residence, this is Basch speaking."_

Prompto froze, suddenly wishing he had listened to Ignis.

_"Hello?"_

"Uh...Hi! Th-this is Prompto Argentum, I'm a friend of ≈≈≈≈≈≈'s?" He spoke up, realizing he'd probably get hung up on if he didn't, and then he'd never get your number.

 _"Argentum, you said?"_  Basch pondered, thinking it wasn't a name he recognized from Traverse Town, and as town ambassador he knew pretty much everyone.

Prompto heard a familiar voice on the other line say,  _"Argentum? is it Prompto?"_

 _"One moment."_ The man Prompto assumed was your step-father said, and the phone was passed along.

 _"Hello, Prompto?"_ Your mother said, and Prompto couldn't help but smile at the sound of her voice.

"Mrs. B—oh...I guess it's Mrs. S now, isn't it?"

 _"That's alright, sweetheart. Why are you calling? Something to do with ≈≈≈≈≈≈, I'm assuming?"_ She sounded good, he was happy to hear.

"Yeah! I was looking to get ≈≈≈≈≈≈'s number from you, actually." He could feel himself getting excited already.

_"You don't have it?"_

"Well, I mean I have the old one, but when I call it says it's been disconnected." He shrugged, though she couldn't see.

_"Oh that's right, she dropped it in a fountain on her first day. We had to replace it. I'm sorry, I didn't realize you two lost contact with each other. I wish you would have called sooner, she's been having such a tough time."_

"Aw, I'm sorry to hear that. I know how hard moving around and making new friends can be."

 _"Yes, I know it's put a strain on her, and she's just been so sick she must have forgotten to try and get back in contact with_ —"

"She's been sick?" He asked, feeling his heart sink. He hated that you left and didn't know what was going on with you now.

_"Why don't I give you her cell, and let the two of you catch up."_

"Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks!" He said, snapping his fingers at Noctis to get him to hand over his cellphone so Prompto could easily take down the number. Noctis just sighed wearily and handed it over.

He put the number into Noctis' phone, then thanked your mother again and hung up before putting the number into his own phone and hitting call.

"Couldn't you have just used your own phone for this?" Noctis asked, taking his phone back from Prompto and examining the number that had been entered.

"Could have, but I didn't want to risk messing it up." Prompto shrugged, holding the phone up to his ear now. It was ringing, at least. That was farther than he had gotten with your old number. "Boy, she sure is letting it ring..." He sighed nervously as he kept waiting for you to answer.

"Who are you working so hard to get in contact with anyways?" Noctis asked, looking down at the number that was still lit up on his screen.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?"

"Yeah, you know? The girl we used to go to school with? I don't actually know that you've met, but—"

"I know who ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ is." Noctis cut him off.

"Come on, pick up...pick up..." Prompto willed you to answer, and Noctis looked down at his phone again and decide to save the number before returning it to his pocket. Just in case Prompto lost your number again.

_"Hello?"_

Prompto got so excited he almost dropped the phone, "Well, well, well. Would you look who finally decided to stop ignoring me?"

_"...Prompto?"_

∞

 _"Well, go on then, what have you been up to?"_ You asked him, and he couldn't keep the smile off his face. It felt so nice to be catching up. It was like he didn't even realize how much he missed you until you started talking again. 

"Nothing really. Everything here's been pretty much the same, give or take a loud mouthed little girl."

 _"Ha-ha."_ You said, and he knew exactly the expression you were making from your tone, and was sure you were giving him your famous eye roll.

"I'm serious. The only thing different about here is you're gone. Oh! And that I'm now friends with Royalty." Prompto said, looking over at Noctis with a smug grin, knowing you wouldn't believe him when you found out.

 _"You don't mean..."_ You sounded doubtful, but since he was telling the truth he wasn't honestly too worried about that.

"That's right! You've been replaced by Noctis Lucis 'motherfuc-king' Caelum."

"Don't call me that ever again." Noctis grumbled, looking out the car window and trying his best to ignore Prompto.

 _"He's there with you?"_  You gasped, and Prompto could visualize you blushing and doing that thing you did with your hair as clearly as if you were right there with him. 

"Well, yeah, how do you think I tracked you down without his princely spy technology." Prompto laughed.

"I'm going to slap you. _"_ Noctis sighed.

 _"You know, you could have emailed me."_ You sassed, and he scoffed.

"What is this, the dark ages?"

_"Does Noctis even know who I am?"_

"I dunno. Noct, do you know who ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ is?"Prompto asked, clearly enjoying himself.

 _"Don't ask him that!"_  You snapped, sounding horrified.

"Of course I do." Noctis shot Prompto a look. They had  _just_  been talking about you, after all.

"Of course he does." Prompto snickered.

 _"Great..."_ You sighed _, "Just great....Well, tell him hello for me...even though we've never spoken before."_

"Whatever. So how's life, how's the town? Find anyone to knock you-know-who off his throne?"

 _"He's sitting right next to you! Could you not?"_ You gave an exasperated sigh, and he laughed. You were the same as ever, he was happy to see...but then what was your mother talking about?

"Oh, alright, alright. So miss busy britches, what are you doing today?"

_"I'm going to a blitz game."_

"A blitz game? I thought your mom said you were sick?"

 _"She said what?"_ Your tone dropped all traces of lightheartedness.

"She said the reason you might not have been in touch was because you've been sick." He tried to explain while still keeping his own tone light. It seemed like maybe he shouldn't have said anything at all about it, but he was just worried. It certainly didn't really sound like there was anything going on before, but you just got so serious all of a sudden.

_"What else did she say?"_

"Nothing. But you know how your mother is. She loves worrying about you."

 _"Yeah...she does..."_  You sighed, and he gave a nervous chuckle.

"Alright, what's going on?"

_"What do you mean?"_

"You're being weird." He said, noticing that Noctis was looking over at him listening in, and the two exchanged a small shrug.

 _"No I'm not."_ You snapped.

 _"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈."_ He deadpanned.

_"I'm not."_

"...Okay..." He rolled his eyes.

_"Just...what else did she tell you."_

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, I've known you since we were in preschool. I know when somethings up with you. Now stop worrying about what she might have told me, and just tell me yourself."

 _"Alright...but..."_  You paused.

"Go on, you know you can tell me anything." He urged you, and there was a long pause.

 _"I have geostigma."_  You finally said, and it sounded like it was taking everything you had to stop your voice from shaking as you said it.

He chuckled nervously,  _"_ Are you going through a tunnel? Because I think we have a bad connection. It sounded like you said you have—"

_"Geostigma, yeah."_

"But...that's..." He was at a loss, but tried his best to fumble through it, "I don't...that's really terrible, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. I'm so sorry, that sucks."

 _"You don't need to tell me twice."_ You sighed, seeming very tired to him all of a sudden.

"How long have you known?" He didn't know what to say, but felt like he needed to keep talking. 

_"Oh, I dunno. We only found out I have it a little while ago...geo-fucking-stigma...I can't even say it without feeling like my stomach is doing flips. I swear, saying it is worse than having it somedays."_

_"...≈≈≈≈≈≈≈..."_

Prompto faintly heard someone on your end say your name, and then you gasped.

 _"Oh god..."_  You mumbled then there was a terrible clatter that sounded like you dropped your phone.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈? What was that? Hello?"Prompto asked in a panic to try and get you to talk to him.

 _"Sorry, I have to go. I'll call you later."_  You said quickly and sounding a little like you just had the wind knocked out of you.

"Wait! ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈! ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" He pulled his phone away from his ear and saw the call had ended. "Well...crapbaskets..." He sighed, lowering his phone and staring at it, still trying to process what just happened.

"What happened?" Noctis asked, still feigning like he wasn't terribly interested but it was pretty obvious he was by the way he was listening in.

"She...hung up on me, I guess. I don't know, I think someone she knew walked up right as she was telling me abou—about her geostigma."

"Geostigma?" Ignis piped up from the front seat, like it slipped out from shock.

"Shit." Noctis bit his cheek as Prompto continued to stare down at his phone in disbelief.

"But we were always so careful to stay away from mako energy. I mean, the school would always close down if there was a leak, and I know her mother hated it and used—"

"Mako energy? What does that have to do with anything?" Noctis cut him off.

"Well, geostigma is caused by mako poisoning, isn't it?" Prompto gave a deflated shrug.

"What? No it isn't." Noctis shot him a curious look, like he'd never heard that before.

"I'm pretty sure it is...I mean, the highest population of infected people are in the slums where that big mako reactor meltdown happened."

"Coincidence?" Noctis shrugged.

"Actually, Prompto, I'm not entirely sure we know the direct cause of geostigma. There's a very similar type of disease on our home world, Eos, and we don't even have mako there, let alone use it as an energy source." Ignis explained.

"Similar how?" Prompto asked, moving so he could look at the reflection of Ignis' eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Similar in all regards, really. It's a bloodrash. Red blood cells get infected and begin replicating uncontrollably with a compromised DNA code until they stop becoming blood cells and just become..."

"Goop." Noctis finished for Ignis, who shot him a look from the corner of his eye, "What? There's not really a scientific term for the congealed gray pudding geostigma turned a person's blood into." Noctis shrugged, saying it without really thinking and only realizing he was implying that Prompto's old friend might be dying from pudding blood. "But...I'm sure, you know...I'm sure ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈'s fine."

Prompto nodded weakly, "Yeah...right? I mean, she has to be. She sounded pretty much the same."

"Yeah, of course. And I can always talk to Luna about it. One of the reasons we have an Oracle on Eos is because they heal the people who have contracted the starscourge."

"The...starscourge?" Prompto looked between Noctis and Ignis.

"What we call our version of the disease. It's believed the source of the corruption comes from a meteor that crashed on our lands. A plague from the stars." Ignis explained.

"A meteor huh? But then...how do so many people here have it? No meteors have crash landed here." Prompto shrugged, and Ignis fell quite like he suddenly became deep in thought. Staying quite just didn't seem like an option for Prompto, though. He was too shaken, "You said you think Luna might be able to help?" He asked Noctis, who shrugged.

"Not sure, but if anyone can help it'd be her. I'll send her a message next time Umbra comes around."

"Would you? Thanks, Noct. It means a lot."

"Yeah, no worries." Noctis mumbled, returning to his usual car position of resting his chin on his palm and looking out the window.

∞

"So specs, what was all that about?" Noctis asked Ignis after they had dropped Prompto off at his house and then began to make for Noctis' training lesson with Gladio.

"What was all what about?" Ignis asked lightly, looking at Noctis' reflection in the rear view mirror.

"You just went all silent all of a sudden." Noctis shrugged. Ignis returned his eyes to the road and his lips pressed into a frown. Noctis knew he went quiet like that because he was thinking earlier, but now it seemed like he was still mulling something over.

"Well, it's just occurred to me...Prompto said there was no meteor crash here." Ignis began, shaking his head a little like something didn't make sense to him.

"What's your point?"

"But there must have been a meteor crash on Gaia, where the Northern Crater formed. Something must have crashed there. I wonder why he doesn't know about it?"

"It's Prompto, he probably just forgot about it." Noctis brushed it off like there was really nothing more to it than that.

"I suppose. Do you remember learning anything about the Northern Crater in school?"

"Nope." Noctis said simply. It might have been mentioned, it might not have. He didn't pay attention enough to know really.

"It just strikes me as odd, is all. Either it was a meteor and there might be a connection between what's happening here and what is happening back on Eos, or there was no meteor and something else caused the crater."

"Like what?"

"Well now that is the key question, isn't it?" Ignis sighed, not liking that he didn't have an answer, "It's just something to possibly look into, I suppose."

"Hmm, maybe you can do that while I'm at training." Noctis agreed, thinking he was at least a little curious whether Ignis could come up with something to link the two crashes.

"Perhaps I will." Ignis nodded. If anything, it would help pass the time.

∞

Back to Now

∞

You walked into the dining room with Ven as your backup, and made to sink into your usual seat at the table without even looking at your mother or Basch, but just as soon as you were about to get seated Basch cleared his throat and spoke up, "≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, would you mind helping Cloud get the pizzas and dishes from the kitchen?" He asked, his tone completely causal despite the fact that he had probably been the one who set up this trap for you. 

"We're having pizza?" You asked as you got to your feet and made for the kitchen.

"Well, we've been at the game all night, I didn't have time to—" Your mother began, but you walked out of the room and into the kitchen, pushing through the swinging door and completely ignoring that she had even been speaking. Once you got in the kitchen you saw Cloud stacking two boxes of pizza on the kitchen island and giving you a look.

"What?" You grumbled at him as you grabbed some plates from the cupboard.

"You said you'd try." His cool blue eyes were giving you a very judgey look, and he looked remarkably like Basch to you at this moment. 

"I am." You scoffed, throwing some napkins on the top plate a little more aggressively than strictly necessary.

"I'm just asking for 15% effort here." He said, trying to sound reasonable and like he was still on your side, but you were still pissed he was doing this.

"Make it 10."

"No. I'm not bargaining with you. Just try, a little bit." He was probably the only person in the world just as stubborn as you, so this was a bit trickier than if it was just your parents alone trying to set this up. Basch didn't know you that well and wouldn't be comfortable pushing you into this, and your mother felt so guilty she could barely look at you these days. But Cloud...Cloud had no mercy, "You're going to hear her out. Even if I have to hold you down and sit on you until you listen."

You just glared at him as you grabbed the stack of dishes and began to walk to the door to return to the dining room. If he was fazed by your glare, he didn't show it as he continued getting out glasses. You walked into the room and set a plate in front of Tifa, then Cloud's empty seat as you made your way around the table. "Could you also get us some drinks, muffin?" Basch asked as you set his plate down in front of him.

"Yeah." You sighed, setting a plate in front of your chair then Ven's, then haphazardly dropping one down in front of your mother before walking back to the kitchen door, where Cloud had just walked out with the pizza boxes and was giving you a look while blocking your way. "Move."

"Excuse me?" He raised an eyebrow.

"You're in  _everyone's_  way." You growled at him.

"Everyone's way, or  _your_ way?" He challenged, and Tifa had to get up and get in between the two of you.

"How about I get the drinks?" She said lightly, turning you back towards the table and pushing her way past Cloud, conflict free, into the kitchen.

You took your seat without a word and looked down at your plate to avoid having to make eye contact with anyone as Cloud set the pizzas down.

"Everything okay?" Ven mumbled very quietly under the new chatter between Cloud and Basch as Cloud asked what kind of pizzas they got, then what everyone wanted.

"Mm-hmm." You hummed your reply near soundlessly, noticing your mother was looking at you from the corner of your eyes.

"So, that was some game, huh?" Cloud said casually as he took his seat, throwing a slice of pizza on his plate.

"Yeah, it looks like the team's really come together this year. That Tidus is just astounding. He's only a sophomore, right? In your grade, ≈≈≈≈≈≈?"

"Yeah." You nodded with zero enthusiasm, reaching for a nice slice of pizza after Ven.

"You'll have to get him to sign a blitzball for me. That boy's going to go pro one of these days." Basch said getting an amused smile as Cloud gave him a dry look.

"What about my signature?" Cloud asked, sounding like he was six years old somehow.

"Oh, of course, son. Just stay in school until that pro blitz contract comes in." Basch smirked and did a poor job of not laughing at his own little joke.

"Do you have any classes with Tidus, ≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Your mother asked, just as Tifa walked in a began setting glasses of water in front of everyone. You thanked her and took a sip, then returned to your pizza, completely ignoring that a question had even been asked. Cloud stepped on your toes under the table, but you ignored the pain and kept your expression completely unchanged. He should have known better than to try and go the pain route. Covering that up was becoming your specialty now, and he'd have to try a lot harder than that.

"You should get Roxas to sign a guitar for you, too. He's about to start a band with Demyx and Axel." Ven said to cut the awkward tension that filled the room when everyone noticed your blatant dismissal of your mother, and Basch raised his eyebrows.

"Are they now? How wonderful. I've seen Roxas and Demyx walking around with their instruments since they were little boys. I really should get them to sign something for me when they form up. Good idea, Ventus."

"Why do you have signed collectables from every kid in the neighborhood but me?" Cloud shot, and Tifa laughed and patted his hand.

"You just don't have any talents worth pursuing, Cloud." She deadpanned, and he shot her a look now too.

"Thanks." He grumbled, and everyone laughed but you and your mother.

"Can I speak to you in the kitchen please, ≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Your mother asked as everyone's laughter died down. Everyone tensed up around the table, but you just took another sip of water.

"What for?" You asked after a long water sip, making sure you were in charge here.

"You're being childish." She scolded you, clearly driven crazy by the fact you wouldn't look at her.

"Darling, we're all eating together for the first time in ages. Surely it can wait until after we've all finished." Basch tried, taking a moment to look at your plate to see how much you had eaten. Ever since you found out about your stigma, you either took dinner up to your room or skipped it all together, and he didn't see you for breakfast or lunch so he had no idea if you were eating enough. He had Ven inform on you sometimes, but somehow having you at the table where he could actually see it for himself was much more reassuring, even with you in this terrible mood.

Your mother looked disgruntled, but finally agreed all the same.

"So, ≈≈≈≈≈≈,do you have any classes with Tidus? I don't think I've ever heard you talk about him." Cloud said, thinking it was pretty harmless and that you couldn't be petty about it. He was wrong.

"Of course I do. What a stupid question." You made your snippy remark, and your mother threw her hands down on the table as she got to her feet. Everyone in the room seemed to hold their breath.

"That's it. In the kitchen.  _Now_." She commended, taking on a voice of pure authority that you had never heard from her before. But it was a little too late for that.

You threw down your napkin as you got to your feet after her, shooting her a very charged look before walking into the kitchen. She followed, and as the swinging door shut behind her you heard Ven awkwardly say something about liking the pizza.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, I have had it. I've tried giving you your space, I've tried letting you cool off and come to terms with this, but you're not. You're giving me no choice, here."

"Oh,  _you_  have no choice?" You snapped, meeting her eyes for the first time in days, rage you didn't even know you were capable of feeling welling up in you and forcing a familiar burning feeling behind your eyes, " _You_  did this to me! What choice did I have?"

"I didn't do this to you, I—"

"Just let it happen! You're right, mother, that's so much better." Your heart began beating faster as your anger levels rose to new heights, and you could feel the prickling of the hair on your arms and on the back of your neck standing up as you became more and more charged with electricity as raw emotions took over.

"I didn't know it was happening! You have to believe I would never willingly try to hurt you. I love you, ≈≈≈≈≈≈, you have to know that. I just wanted what was best for you."

"You covered it up! You covered up everything he did to me. And Caius! Just...pretended it wasn't happening! That nothing happened. And now that it's come back around to haunt you, you're mad that I'm upset with you? You're unbelievable!" You weren't bothering to control your volume at this point, even knowing everyone in the dining room could hear you loud and clear through the thin swinging door. You began feeling shooting pain, spreading outwards from your chest down into your fingers and through your legs, but you fought it by balling your hands into fists and clenching your jaw.

"I  _was_  trying to cover it up. I didn't want you to ever have to live through the pain of the memories of our past ever again. I know that was wrong and I'm sorry, especially now that we know you didn't get away as unscathed as I thought. As I hoped. I was just trying to protect you!" 

You had to gnash your teeth together and speak through them in order to force the words out, "It's a little late for that now."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, please. Just let me try to help you. Please, stop crying." She said, and you flushed with anger. You were fighting so hard not to cry at all times, and she had to gall to say that like maybe it just hadn't occurred to you stop.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that every day it feels like I'm walking around with an open wound. That something happened to me that has gutted me like a goddamn carp, and it's all I can do to try and cover it up so no one else has to see. But I can't cover it up. I can't stop crying. There is a knife in me that you twist in deeper every time you look at me, and I keep bleeding all over your furniture where everyone can see. "

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈!" She pleaded, but you wouldn't hear it.

"You were supposed to be the one who loved me! Who stopped him from hurting me. Where were you?  _Where were you!?_ "

"I know this brings back memories of him, and that you hate being linked back to your father again in any way, but you can't let this hatred rule you like this! I have done all that I can for you to get you away from him, out of that city, off that world, and into a place where you can have a future. And you can still have a future. This isn't the beginning of the end for you. Don't burn the map I've made for you and self-destruct just to get back at him. He won't feel it. Only you will."

You felt something in you break, like the grief that was weighing on your bones finally became too much under all of your anger and all of your pain. You buckled at the knees and had to grasp the counter for support to keep yourself from falling. You were holding the cold corner of the granite counter so hard your knuckles went white and numb, and tears of utter frustration finally began to fill your eyes as you had to fight to regain your footing and stability.

"Muffin—" She made to reach for you, seeing the agony clearly written all over your face, but you swatted her away.

"I don't want to be like this!" You cried, throwing out an arm to stop her from touching you. It felt like your words had to claw their way out from inside your teeth, and tears were catching in your eyelashes and staining your cheeks as you opened your eyes to plead for this all to stop, even though you knew there was nothing she or anyone else could do. Despite your rage and will to keep fighting, your body was giving in to the pain and exhaustion. All you had left was anger and lightning buzzing so violently under your skin it was making you numb.

"I know. I know you don't. I don't want this for you either. I hate seeing you like this. All I want in the world is to take this pain away from you, but I can't. I don't know how to help you, but you have to let me try! You have to let go of your anger. You can't become like the ones who've hurt you." She reached for you again, taking your cheeks in her hands before looking into your eyes with such deep sadness you could see it even through the blur of tears. Your skin shocked her fingertips, but she ignored it completely.

"I don't know how. I don't know how to let it go." You shook your head, letting yourself fall forwards into her as you began to feel like your body had quit. "I'm so sad and so scared. And from watching you and dad, I learned to turn my sadness into anger until I can't even feel it anymore. I don't know how to try to let go of it, because it is the only feeling I have left some days. I hate this. I hate it so much. Hate has sunk into my bones so deeply that I can't even move without feeling it. I know you've always said 'hate is a strong word,' but it is the only strength I have left most days." You just felt so weak, like your lungs were giving up on you and your legs didn't want to hold you up any longer.

She just held you tight to her chest, stroking your hair and willing for even an ounce of her love to get through to you, but you just shook in her arms. You shook and you sobbed, and your hands clutched at the fabric of her shirt as if screaming 'You're my mother, comfort me! Why aren't you helping me?' All she could do was hold you close and wonder how it was that the small child she used to see running around the house without a care in the world could grow up to be like this, and think about how unfair it was that such a burden would fall on your shoulders. It was so heavy, and you were just so small to her still. It would crush you. It  _was_  crushing you. And there wasn't a damn thing she could do for you.

Your muscles suddenly clenched up tight and you let out a muffled wail of pain as you collapsed into her, stigma burning through your heart and spreading so painfully that it knocked you off your feet and disconnected you from any control you had left over yourself. You crashed down onto your knees first as you slipped from your mothers grasp after surprise made her loosen it, then you fell sideways over your hip and smacked your head into the hard tile floor. You heard the thud, and felt the impact, but didn't feel the pain you should have from any of it. You were too distracted by the searing pain of the stigma's poison branding your veins, like it was demanding to be felt above all else.

"Ventus!" Your mother cried at the top of her lungs as she dropped to her knees beside you. You heard the door swing open, but lost consciousness before you ever got a chance to see anyone come in.

∞

"You guys have to  _stop_ riling her up like this. It causes an overproduction of new stigma cells, and her heart can't take it. This is twice now. I mean it; control yourselves." Ven scolded everyone in the room, looking specifically at Cloud and your mother as he kneeled beside you with a healing hand pressed over your heart and the other checking your pulse in your wrist so he could be sure he was able to heal it back into a normal rhythm. Normal for you anyway.

"She doesn't exactly make it easy." Cloud shot back, and Tifa hit him in the arm and mumbled for him to shut up.

"I know she doesn't, but you're only making things worse for her. Just...try." Ven sighed, letting go of your wrist now that your heart rate had slowed to normal and he had soothed all the pain it was causing you.

"Is she going to be alright? Should we call Lulu?" Your mother choked out, still completely horrorstricken and clinging to Basch, who was stroking her hair to try and calm her down while also holding her back so she couldn't crowd Ven while he was working.

"Nah, she'll be alright. She just needs some rest." He said, putting a hand over your forehead and considering waking you up, but then he decided it might be better to leave you alone for now, "Can you help me get her to her room?" He asked, looking at Cloud but Basch stepped forward instead and scooped you up into his arms and took you from the room.

"Why don't I make us some tea?" Tifa offered after seeing your mother turn into Cloud to cry on his shoulder now that Basch had left with Ven. No one had even told Tifa what was going on with you in any specific terms, but she figured this wasn't the time to go asking questions. Besides, the other day when she heard Cloud tell Genesis you were sick, when she asked him about it he told her it wasn't his place to go into detail and that she should ask you herself.

Up in your room, Basch had set you down in your bed while Ven pulled up his usual chair. "How is she, really?" Basch asked as he put a blanket over you and helped your head find a comfortable resting position on the pillow.

"Honestly, she's alright. I just didn't want to wake her up and have everyone staring down at her looking scared. That's not a good feeling." He mumbled, taking a moment to look over your expression before turning back to Basch, "I could wake her up for you if you want."

"No, let her rest while she can. She always looks so tired." He said with a small frown as he looked down at you wincing ever so slightly in your sleep. Ven moved a hand up to your forehead to ease the pain and lull you back to sleep with magic, and Basch sighed, "We caused this tonight, didn't we?"

Ven hesitated, not sure how to answer that, "Do you want my medical opinion, or will you accept a personal one?"

"I don't typically take the advice of seventeen-year-old boys I fantasize about throwing out of my daughter's room every night," Basch began, giving Ven a very specific look that made him quickly retract his hand from you and caused his cheeks to flare up bright pink, "but I suppose there's a pretty good reason why I haven't done that yet, so maybe I could at least hear you out."

"Medically speaking, hell yeah you caused this. And you know it too, that's the only reason why you're asking me. She's still learning how to cope with her stigma, and she really hasn't figured it out very well at all, yet. The minute she loses control of herself, it floods her system. Complete system overload, to the point where fighting back isn't even an option. You should all know better than to push for openly upsetting confrontations while she's still just trying to wrap her head around everything." Ven scolded him, no matter how weird it felt to see Basch begin biting the inside of his cheek and stroke his stubble while looking at you with guilty eyes, "But...she needed to talk to her mother. She's resilient, I'm right here to clean up the aftermath, and now the whole thing is behind us, hopefully, so we can just move on. If anything, it'll make acceptance easier for her to cope. If you ask my opinion, it was the right thing to do."

"Thanks, Rostar...You're a good kid." Basch clasped him by the shoulder and gave it a good squeeze.

"Just doing what you pay me for." Ven shrugged, fidgeting with his hands in his lap awkwardly as Basch looked from you to him, clearly able to feel the healing magic radiating from Ven through his shoulder.

"We're lucky to have you." He gave Ven's shoulder one last good squeeze before making for the door to let you rest undisturbed by any talking. He stopped at the door frame and looked back at the two of you, watching as Ven scooted closer to you and put a hand on the side of your face to perform another med-check on you, much more tenderly now that you were alone together. 'Just doing what we pay you for,' Basch thought, the faintest trace of a smile rising to his lips as he shook his head lightly closing the door most of the way

      ∞

Cloud wandered into your room after he finished getting himself ready for bed, a few hours after the whole incident had happened. You were laying in bed with your head on a pillow resting in Ven's lap, and he was sitting parallel to the headboard with his back against the wall, a medical book in one hand and his other hand resting on your shoulder. 

"Whatcha doing?" Cloud asked as he walked in, taking a seat in the now vacant chair by your bed.

"Reading." Ven shrugged, not looking up from his book.

"I can see that, smartass." Cloud smirking lightly, rolling his eyes at Ven before letting them rest on your sleeping frame. You looked so peaceful that he wasn't even going to make a comment about how weird the seating arrangement the two of you had come up with was, "How's the dud?"

"Sleeping like a baby. No harm done." Ven said causally, turning the page of his book and then letting his hand return to its resting place on your arm.

"Good. That's...good. Has she woken up at all since dinner?" He wasn't going to admit it, but he felt pretty guilty about this whole thing. If it weren't for him, you'd probably have spent your night out with the Blitz team, eating pancakes and shooting down Zack's date requests.

"Yeah, I got her up a little while ago so she could get ready for bed. She's not mad at you or anything. She's mostly just tired." Ven looked at you from over the corner of his book to make sure you were still sleeping soundly, then returned his gaze to the page when he was satisfied you were still out cold.

"Well, she picked the right pillow. It's nice to have you watching over her for us."

"It's what I do." Ven sighed, "But boy am I jealous she gets to sleep right now."

"Hey, why are you always reading medical books? You're a white mage, don't you basically cheat all that?"

"Only for some things. More complicated damage needs more complicated know-how to fix up."

"Seriously? I always thought you just kinda...throw hands on the problem and shoot it with white magic until it goes away." Cloud scratched his cheek sheepishly as he exposed his limited knowledge of all things magic.  

"Good luck throwing hands on a failing liver." Ven shrugged.

"Point taken." Cloud mumbled, looking at you and realizing that even if Ven taught him enough magic to put you to sleep, he really didn't know enough about magic to be using it, "Can you explain it to me a little bit?"

"Uh, sure...if you want. I guess it's like White Magic is just a big umbrella term for a bunch of forms of magic, like how Black Magic is elemental magic, status effects, force magic, and warps. White magic is anything from negating elemental and status magic, to scans, shields, and dispels, but it's mostly about time magic. The stuff we teach you guys at the White Magic training camp right before the trip mainly boils down to rewind spells. You see a cut or a bruise, you rewind to a point in time when it wasn't there, easy-peasy. But if injuries get internal or it been too long since the initial injury to rewind, you need a little more knowledge. Speeding things up to heal things like broken bones is a little trickier because you have to know when to stop and make sure it's healing naturally." He gave a half hearted shrug and summed it all it up, "If you don't know what you're doing, ain't nothing gonna heal properly."

Cloud laughed, "Now there's a great quote about magical training. I'll have Yuffie put it in the school paper."

"Mock me all you want. One of these days you're gonna walk ass first into a fiend's nest in Spira, try to heal yourself, fuck it up, then I'll be called in to fix your mess." Ven said, giving Cloud very lazy glare over the brim of his book before he returned his gaze to the page.

"It's funny, everyone thinks of you as this end all be all of White Magic, yet here you are. Studying."

"Gotta make sure I don't accidentally put your ass on backwards when that day comes." Ven smirked. Cloud chuckled, then watched as you began to wiggle and eventually turn over so your face was nestled into Ven's stomach, meanwhile Ven just raised his arm and waited for you to get settled again before lowering his hand back in relatively the same position. "You okay?" Ven asked softly, and Cloud saw you nod a little before falling still again.   

"Are we bothering her?" Cloud asked after a moment of silently watching you to see if you had fallen back to sleep or not.

"Nah, she's just wiggly. I could put her in a dead sleep and she'd still toss around a little bit." Ven said, his eyes dropping from the page of his book to your face now that it was turned towards him. He found himself smiling lightly as he watched you, but then he remembered Cloud was there, watching too, and he fought to make his expression neutral again.

"You two seem really close these days." Cloud said, though it didn't sound like an accusation or a threat at all. It was more like a passing observation. "I know she needs you around. I think it's really great how available you've made yourself."

"Oh, yeah, it's whatever." Ven tried to brush it off casually, but his cheeks were definitely flaring up, "I mean, it gives me something to do every day besides going home and watching TV."

"Don't sell yourself short, you're compassionate. It's a good thing. In fact, I'm a little jealous. I wish I could help others the way you can." Cloud sighed, resting his chin on his palm and looking at the back of your sleeping head, knowing there wasn't a damn thing he could do for you.

"Compassion sucks." Ven muttered, half irritated for the sentiment that was probably aimed to compliment him. Cloud shot him a curious look, so he went on. "It hurts, you know? It really does. It's deafening, even. 'The healer has the bloodiest hands,' right? That's what Lu always says, anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"When I'm healing someone, I can feel everything. Every ache and pain, no matter how small. I can turn it off sometimes, but when it's bigger...with more serious stuff there's no way for me to not feel every bit of it. When you feel that connected to everything, and you know that you could do something about it to help, you can't help but feel responsible for it. You can't just turn away...you can't just leave someone stranded when they're suffering. Just...deeply  _suffering_." His hand tightened on your shoulder as you shuddered and he had to force some white magic into you to still you again, "I was taught that you have to let yourself be empty enough that you can sit in the same room with some of the worst horrors the universe has to offer, while still caring enough that you're willing to try anyway. You either learn to carry the weight of helping people or get crushed by it. It doesn't seem fair that those are the only options."

"So what you're saying is you can't heal a broken heart?" Cloud said with a snicker, and Ven shot him a heated look.

"I was being serious."

"I know you were, that's why I said it." Cloud sat back in his chair, giving Ven a look, "You're freaking me out. You're like 10, I don't think you should be having an existential crisis. Go kick a ball around with your brothers, drink a milkshake, I don't care. Just keep it together. You're the anchor keeping us all grounded here, so buck up." Cloud scolded him, getting to his feet and making his way over to the door.

"How am I supposed to be the anchor? Remember, I'm 10." Ven mumbled bitterly, thinking he was barely half a year younger than Cloud.

"I don't know, but you need to figure it out. She's counting on you." Cloud said, looking back over his shoulder from the doorway and ignoring Ven's grumpy look completely, "Look, I'm sorry. That sounds like it really sucks...more than that, actually, that's a huge understatement. I'm sorry things are like this for you. I know nothing has been easy for you, either. In a perfect world, maybe you could go kick a ball around with your brothers, or be able to put that book down and get some rest. But in a perfect world, she would never have become my sister. Our world is shitty, but at least some good has come out of it. Try to get some sleep tonight. You deserve it too." He said, giving Ven a genuinely empathetic look before heading back into the hall and closing the door most of the way behind him.

When the two of you were alone again Ven closed his book and set it aside, then took in a heavy breath and sighed it out. Everyone always told him to get it together, but he had geostigma just as severely as you did. He was just better equipped to deal with it. It didn't plague him with constant pain, but he had his own undesirable side-effects to try and manage. He didn't like to fault people for needing his help, but he always got the sense that people didn't really see him as anything but a tool to heal. He liked helping, and liked feeling needed and important, but after it was all said and done and people no longer in need of help moved on, he just felt used.

'Guess it's a good thing you'll never actually be able to fix her, right?' A voice from a part of his mind he normally liked to shut out said, 'She'll always need you.'  He found himself looking down at you again, and his hand unconsciously moved from your arm to stroke your soft hair gently. Some static shocked his fingertips as he grazed your skin, and that seemed to snap him out of it.  

He quickly grabbed his phone and turned on the front facing camera to get a look at his appearance. Green eyes. Just like he thought. "Shit." He mumbled out loud, tossing the phone aside and heaving a frustrated sigh. He put his hands on your shoulders to lift you off him so he could slip off the bed despite your grumpy groan of protest as his rough handling woke you up. Once he was off the bed, he made sure you were laying down again happily on your pillow and ready to fall right back to sleep before bolting from the room and heading down to the kitchen to get something to eat or drink. He just needed anything to distract himself and get away from you.

Everyone trusted him so much, but he couldn't even begin to trust himself. He must have waited downstairs for the better part of two hours, talking a little to your mother and Basch when he found them in the kitchen, then once they went to bed he just watched TV for a while until he was sure he was back to normal again. He checked a mirror to make doubly sure, then went back up to your room to go to bed.

"Where've you been?" You asked lazily as he came into the room, barely lifting your head enough from the pillow to see that it was in fact Ven who entered.

"Why are you awake?" He asked, sounding tired and frustrated.

"Idunno." You mumbled as one word that was more the general sound than the actual words.

"Do you need me to put you to sleep? Are you in pain?" He asked, settling down onto his sleeping bag heavily, but keeping upright so he could lean over and get to you if you needed him to.

"No, I was just waiting for you." You shrugged, nuzzling back into the blankets and closing your eyes. 

"Waiting for me?" He watched you curiously as you very obviously struggled to keep yourself awake long enough to make sure he was okay, even now.

"Well, yeah. I just woke up and you were gone. Is everything okay?"

"Of course it is. You don't need to worry about me. You know that."

"Someone's got to. Why not me?" You shrugged lightly, your eyes opening just enough that you could see him.

"Why not you? Because I don't want you to." He replied simply, sitting crossed legged on the sleeping back and leaning over to fix the blanket on you so it was properly covering your shoulders.

"Too bad." You shot back, letting your eyes fall closed again.

"Hey, why are you worried about me?" He put his hand over yours where it was resting beside your face on the pillow, giving it a gentle squeeze to make sure you didn't fall asleep before answering him. It looked like you would drift off at any second.

"I don't know. You're always worrying about me, and it's getting to you. I heard you talking to Cloud, and–"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, that's my problem. It has nothing to do with you. Helping you isn't getting to me. Okay?" He gave your hand a reassuring squeeze, "I promise."

You opened your eyes and propped up a little so you were able to look at him properly, thinking you might as well just say what you were thinking, "It's just...I know you're going through a lot, too. And you never complain about anything, or let anyone see what's going on. I mean, I've had geostigma for a couple of weeks and half the neighborhood knows...you've had it for years and you haven't even told your family. I know you worry about me because I'm a sopping puddle on the floor most days...but your silence worries me just as much sometimes." "

"Our situations are different. You shouldn't compare yourself to me. And it shouldn't even matter that I happen to have the stimga too. I signed on as your doctor, I'm here to help you. It's my job to worry about you. Not the other way around." His tone with you was gentle, like he wasn't trying to argue. It still felt like an excuse to you, but frankly you were exhausted and didn't want to press it.

"Maybe," You settled back down onto your pillow, "but you're not a doctor to me. You're my friend, and I'm gonna worry about you whether you like it or not."

"Well, worry about me tomorrow." He brushed the hair out of your eyes and tucked it behind your ear so he could press his fingers to your temple, "Get some sleep."

"You first." You grumbled, knocking his hand away and staring him down until he sighed and gave in.

"Fine." He shook his head, smiling a little despite himself as he settled into his sleeping bag and fluffed up the pillow behind his head.

∞

The next few days were better than your last few weeks combined. Things around the house were still pretty weird and tense, but you were at least trying now. Lulu and Aqua worked with you on pain management strategies during magic training and got you to start writing a journal to help you cope with the stigma, and if things ever got to be too much for you Ven was never far away. It felt like you were finally coming to terms with things. You spent the weekend off with your friends, and focused pretty heavily on your school work on the days following. It was almost like things were back to normal, give or take some pain and bad dreams.

It was Thursday morning, and that meant one thing: just get through today and then you could focus pretty much exclusively on the school trip to Spira. Tomorrow was the survival training weekend in the woods and everyone was so excited. You had already packed and prepared, all that needed to happen was for 6:00 am tomorrow morning to roll around, then everything would change. After the survival weekend, there was a week for picking teams, then you would be sent off to a specialized training camp for another week, then it was off to Spira. Everything was happening so fast, you didn't even have time to worry about yourself.

"So, got any plans today?" Ven asked, sitting up in his sleeping bag and running a lazy hand through his messy hair. You had just come back in through the window after your morning coffee with Riku.

"Yeah, actually. After school I'm going to help Roxy make his band, then dinner with Yuffie, maybe. She's been bugging me to hang out." You said, looking in the mirror as you tied your tie. It was being particularly difficult today and wouldn't lie flat after you left it crumpled up on the floor all night.

"Nice. So I have the afternoon off?"

"You have every afternoon off." You rolled your eyes, giving up on your tie and using a few bobby pins to force it flat by pinning it to your shirt.

"That's not true. I spend most of them watching out for you."

"You're a glorified life-alert button." You brushed it off, stepping over him to get to your desk. He liked to sit around and try and wake up slowly while you got ready for school, making himself a bit of an obstacle in the middle of your floor, but by now you were used to it.

"Well then, miss high and mighty, I guess you don't want me coming out to the campsite over the weekend to check on you." He said, yawning his way through his threat.

"You know, maybe I don't want you poking around." You shrugged, putting your poetry assignment in your backpack, "I mean, it's not like you'll be able to follow me around and check on me all the time in Spira, right?"

He ruffled his hair up again, "I guess that's true. But still, we don't need to go throwing you to the wolves all at once. Slow and steady, till you don't even need me. I've already started helping less and less."

You stopped messing with your backpack and looked over your shoulder at him, "Really?"

"Yeah." He shrugged.

"Huh...I thought it seemed like you were sitting around doing nothing more lately. Ass." You stepped over him again to get to your bedroom door, letting your backpack drag behind you so it whacked him as you passed.

"You didn't even notice. It's a good thing, it means you're able to handle it on your own."

"And yet you're still my roommate." You gave him a look over your shoulder.

"Well, fine. So you're still a little dependent, but you're getting there." He stretched his arms up over his head and made to finally start getting up and get ready for school.

"Yeah, that'll be the day. Want toast or a waffle?"

"Waffle me." He replied, and with that you made your way downstairs to the kitchen.

Cloud and Tifa were down there like usual, and already had the waffle station set up with a pack of frozen waffles, the toaster, nutella, and bananas all ready to go. They were in the middle of cutting the bananas when you walked in.

"Make some for me and Ven, too." You said to Cloud as you made your way over to the coffee machine and got a thermos.

"Don't you get coffee from Riku's?" Cloud eyed you as you dropped some sugar into the cup.

"Yes, but this is my walking to school coffee. There's a difference." You insisted.

"Whatever. Pour me some too." He said back, tossing two waffles into the toaster. You started to get his coffee ready--one sugar, splash of milk, bit of cinnamon on top--when there was a knock at the door.

"Expecting anyone?" Tifa asked.

"Three guesses." Cloud mumbled, and both of them looked at you.

"Who knows with this town?" You shrugged lazily.

"You gonna get that?" Cloud shot you a look.

"Oh, fine." You sighed, pushing off the counter you were leaning against, knowing exactly who was going to be at the door. You walked out to the door and put on a surprised face as you opened it up to come face to face with, "Zack."

"Good morning, ≈≈≈≈≈≈!" He beamed at you, his hands behind his back. You of course noticed this right away.

"What did you do this time?" You tried to peek around him to see what he was holding.

"Hold your chocobos, I'll get to it. But first--"

"Please, don't." You bit the inside of your cheek, as uncomfortable with this as the first three times he did it this week.

"I just wanted to ask if you would reconsider joining my team for Spira." He smirked, pulling a bouquet of beautiful flowers out from behind his back. They were lilies today, bright and beautiful smelling. He offered them to you and you gave him a pleading look.

"Zack..."

"I know, I know. No dates. But I also know how much you like flowers, so..." He met your guilty expression with his own, sincere small smile, "take them."

You sighed, reaching for them and brining them closer to your nose to smell them.

"Besides, they're actually a gift from my mother to your mother this time, but," He grinned, taking a single lily out of the bouquet and twisted it between his fingers before biting his lip and offering it to you separately, "this one is for you."

You shook your head as you took it, "You goober. Come on, get in here." You stepped out of the way to let him into the house, then went into the kitchen to get a vase for all the flowers. He won some raffle for free flowers for a week at the Gainsborough florist when he got you those apology flowers last week. So every morning he turned up at your door and presented you with a new bouquet. Well, he at least had the decency to give them to his mother on Saturday and Sunday, but as soon as the weekdays rolled around they somehow all started coming to you.

"Hah, five bucks, Tifa. Pay up." Cloud snickered as you walked in with Zack.

"I didn't take that bet. I knew it was him, too." She shot back, but he just held his hand out with a smirk. "Oh, fine. Whatever. You'll blow it all on popcorn anyway." She grumbled as she reached for her bag and pulled out a wallet.

"And I'll do so happily." Cloud took the money from her and stuffed it into his pocket and went back to making waffles, and while his back was turned Tifa hugged him from behind and planted a kiss on his cheek.

"You're silly." She said, and you were at just the right angle to see her snatch the money right back out of his pocket while he was busy being smug.

"So Zack, what brings you by?" Cloud asked, watching out of the corner of his eye as you got on your toes and reached for a tall vase in the cupboard that you could just barely get with your finger tips. Zack grabbed it for you and gave you a mushy look as you took it. You rolled your eyes at him with a laugh, and began to fill it with water to stick the flowers in.

"Oh, nothing much. You know me, I can't stay away from the Strife household." Zack shrugged.

"Now there's an understatement." Tifa scoffed.

"Look who's talking." He shot back.

"His mom sent over some flowers for our parents." You explained, and Cloud laughed.

"Yeah, okay. His mom. Sure. You can just put those with the other flowers 'his mom' sent over this week."

"Shut up, Cloud." You didn't even need to be listening to him fully to know that was an appropriate response. You were already making your way back out into the hallway to put the lilies on the table by the front door.

"It really was my mom this time. She said she wanted to send something to congratulate Basch on the engagement." Zack said with an innocent shrug, following you out into the hall. Cloud and Tifa exchanged a look.

"She might have." Tifa shrugged.

"Yeah, maybe. But I'm sure the delivery boy didn't mind."

"And why should he? It's nice to give a girl flowers." She bumped him a little harder than strictly necessary with her hip as she returned to her spot at the banana chopping station next to him.

"You know, you could probably send some of these to other people. It's starting to feel like you're spoiling me." You said to Zack as you set the vase on the table and began to spread the lilies out and start arranging them.

"I do. Well, my mom does. I gave her the winning raffle ticket, after all. She's already sent some to all her coworkers and some neighbors. I just always pick up a little something extra when I'm at the flower shop. It's no big deal." He put his hands in his pockets as he leaned against the wall and watched.

"It feels like a big deal." You mumbled, and he laughed.

"These ones really were for your mother." He insisted.

"I know, but still...You're bribing me."

"Bribery? ≈≈≈≈≈≈, come on. You know me better than that."

"Okay." You eyed him.

"Okay. So it's settled then. It's not bribery."

"It's not bribery." You nodded.

"But..." He began and you sighed, "If you wanted to join Gippal and me on the trip, there's more where that came from."

"Zack, I've told you a hundred times I don't know who to go with, or if I'll even pass the survival weekend."

"Of course you will, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. It's a cake walk. Really, they just beef up the description to scare the freshmen." He said. You gave him a dry look and he put on the puppy dog eyes, "Please just think about it."

"Well, we make decisions next week right? I guess I'll have to think about it sooner or later."

"If not us, then who?"

"I don't know."

"Come on, who's my competition? Are they getting you flowers too?" He asked, getting a very serious look on his face that someone who didn't know him might have mistaken as genuine.

"No. No one else is this crazy." You couldn't help but smile under his fake serious gaze. He also cracked a smile, and you finally gave in and hugged him. You were trying not to seem overly appreciative or impressed by his gifts and make him think you'd be joining his team when you were also seriously considering joining Riku and Roxas, or Xion and Olette, or even Cloud and Tifa...but it was Zack. You couldn't help yourself. You got up on your toes and hugged him something fierce. Or what you thought was fierce, but your squeeze got totally thrown out the window when he returned your hug and nearly knocked the wind out of you.

"You taking up chiropractics, Fair?" Ven asked as he walked down the staircase, dressed and ready for school but still not really looking any more awake than he was before.

"You bet." Zack beamed at him, making you sigh in disapproval as he squeezed even tighter and leaned back so your feet came off the ground before swaying a little side to side.

"Zack, c'mon," You wheezed, "you've got like eighty pounds on me, ease up."

"You crack any ribs, I'm not fixing them." Ven warned as he continued on his way into the kitchen, more concerned about his morning waffle than your breathing at the moment.

Zack laughed and dropped you, continuing to beam as you threw a hand on his shoulder so you could balance while you leaned forward to catch your breath, "Y'know, I don't see Gippal over here trying to bribe me."

"That's got everything to do with the fact that it's early and nothing to do with you." Zack shrugged. It wasn't exactly something you could disprove, to be honest.

"Yeah, whatever...we'll talk about this next week." You said as you got yourself together and walked back into the kitchen so you could at least go get your waffle before anything else happened this morning.

When you walked through the open kitchen door, you saw your mother was in there now, sipping on some coffee while talking to Tifa while Cloud and Ven were on waffle duty.

"Morning." You said to her as you walked in, and she looked up and smiled a very over the top smile at you.

"Good morning, muffin. How are you doing today?"

"Fine." You shrugged, avoiding eye contact. You still had a hard time looking at her without feeling a pang of bitterness, but you knew you had to try to let it go. You decided to try distracting yourself, grabbing one of the waffles Ven just finished layering with banana.

"Hey!" He complained, but you took a bite while making full eye contact with him to show clearly just how much you didn't care if it upset him.

"Do you want me to make you something for lunch?" Your mother asked, walking over to the pantry.

"No, that's alright. There's a school...cooking...thing." You mumbled, feeling uncomfortable under her unrelenting stare. It was like she was so happy you were speaking with her again that she was desperately clinging to any social interaction the two of you had. You felt bad that she was so desperate, but at the same time it made you extremely uncomfortable. "Oh, hey, there's Riku. I have to run." You said, seeing that Riku had just left his house and was walking to school now. You grabbed your backpack off the island, then stuffed the waffle between your teeth as you darted out of the room, out the door, and down the street after Riku.

"A...cooking thing?" Your mother sighed, looking at the front door with a sad expression on her face.

"Uh, yeah. We're learning how to make easy survival foods in health today." Tifa said, trying to cheer her up. It wasn't a lie, at least. You could have been more convincing, but at least you weren't lying.

"Oh...sure..." She nodded, though she seemed utterly deflated.

"Hey, Mrs. Strife, my mom got something for you!" Zack said, stepping in and lighting up the room with his grin. At least someone around here knew how to diffuse an awkward situation.

∞

"Riku, wait up." You called after him as you dashed up. He turned around, surprised to see you were planning on walking with him, then scoffed and rolled his eyes at you.

"You have something all over your face."

"Yeah I know, it's chocolate. I'm saving it." You deadpanned, taking another bite of waffle and matching his look of disapproval. You weren't going to bother cleaning it off until you finished, knowing full well you'd just get more on there later.

"Well, they can say what they will about your morning personalities, but you Strife's sure know how to do breakfast." He shook his head and resumed walking off towards the school.

"It's Waffle Wednesday." You shrugged.

"It's Thursday." He shot you a confused look.

"We got too excited to wait for Turnover Thursday, so we had to mix up our days a little." You explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world and he should have guessed that.

"Anyway, why are you walking with me? You never walk with me." He asked, looking at his watch. You, Cloud, and whoever happened to be hanging out in your house for the morning normally didn't leave until fifteen minutes before the first bell, and he left almost thirty minutes early everyday.

"My house is crazy. I kinda just wanted to leave." You brushed it off like it was just a casual thing.

"Yeah, I saw Zack walking up a couple minutes ago. Figured that was a bad sign. Not as bad as him together with Gippal, but like...at least a 6 on the disrupt-o meter."

"Only a 6?" You laughed, "You don't know him as well as I do." You finished your waffle and began to wipe at your chin with the back of your sleeve to try and get the chocolate off.

"Now there's an understatement." He said, turning to look at you while he walked so he could point at his cheek to show you a spot you were missing. You raised a hand to your left cheek and felt around, but couldn't find it. "You're hopeless." He sighed, stopping and turning to face you and taking his hand up surprisingly high on your right cheek.

"How did I even get it all the way up there?" You marveled as he rubbed at it with his thumb.

"Yeah, you're a regular wonder kid." He rolled his eyes, getting the chocolate off and then wiping his hand on the shoulder of your gray TTA sweater. You scoffed at him and pushed him away so he'd stop, then continued walking towards the school.

"Thanks. You're a real pal." You glared at him, checking to see if it left a stain on your shoulder you'd have to walk around with all day.

"I'm better than some." He shrugged.

"Aw, that's so cute. You have a crush on yourself. I'd be careful though, the guy you're in love with is a total douche." You warned him, and he gave you some pretty heated side eye.

"Remind me to start running for the hills next time you try and walk with me."

"I'll remind you to get that stick out of your ass while you're at it." You shot back, and he smirked.

"I always look forward to our little chats, you know that?"

"I do know that." You nodded with a laugh. No one else was able to really keep up with his grumpy sass but you. It was like you both spoke the same sarcastic asshole language.

"Hey, how are you doing today, anyways?" He asked suddenly, taking a suspiciously long look at you.

"I'm alright. Why?" You eyed him and he quickly looked away.

"No particular reason."

"Riku..."

"You just look tired is all."

"Well, that's just great." You sighed heavily, running a hand through your hair.

"What is?"

"Why would you say that to me? Either A, I am tired and now I know I look like shit, or B, I'm not tired and now I know I look like shit."

"You don't look like shit, you look tired. Not 'it's morning so, yeah, I'm tired' tired. But you know... _tired._ " He said gently, hinting that he wasn't talking about general sleepiness, but that maybe you might be worn down from the stigma.

"Yeah, I'm tired. Is it that obvious?"

"No, it's not. It's not anything you can see in your face. It's your eyes."

"Nothing to worry about...I'm just a little dead inside. Still pretty though, right?"

"Still pretty." He nodded, laughing lightly and putting an arm around your shoulders as you walked to cheer you up, "You're a little bit ridiculous, you know that? No one else in your position would care about looking pretty."

"I'm a girl. I'll always care about lookin' pretty." You elbowed him a little, and you were given another famous Riku eye roll.

"What about...being smart? Or funny? Or having a nice personality? None of that matters?"

"You know, you're pretty too. I'd be careful if I was you. What will the freshman girls talk about if it's not how pretty you are?"

"Call me pretty again." He warned, and you snickered. You shared a nice laugh with him after that, then sighed as silence fell between you. "What's wrong now?" He asked, giving your shoulder a squeeze to draw you out of whatever thought just struck you.

"Nothing, just...you're right. I really don't care about looking pretty, but my external appearance is all I have to hide behind these days. It scares me sometimes, you know? The only thing standing between me and everyone knowing my business is a smile." You bit your cheek and stared down at your feet as you walked until he stopped you. You dared a glance over at him and tried not to flinch away from the look he was giving you. You weren't used to opening up to him like this, and didn't quite feel comfortable under his sympathetic gaze.

Blue eyes bore into you, and you almost couldn't see the green ring around his iris they were so laser focused on yours, "You don't need to worry about that around me. I would never ask you to hide how you're feeling. I get it, I know what living with stigma looks like better than anyone."

"I know you do. And I wish it wasn't like this, but I can't let anyone see. Not yet. I hate the idea of being a spectacle."

"Hey, what if we ditched school?" He suddenly asked, and that snapped you out of your rapidly falling mood.

"What?"

"Yeah, come on. Fuck 'em, let's go." He shrugged, looking around to see if anyone was paying you any attention on the mostly empty street. There were some other students walking by who were also on their way to school, but it was no one you knew or anyone who seemed the least bit interested in the two of you.

"The office will just call our parents the second we're reported absent from class." You protested, remaining firmly rooted to the spot despite him looking like he was ready to take off down a different road any second.

"So tell Ven to cover for you. Tell him to tell everyone you threw up in his office so he sent you home." Riku shrugged, taking you by the hand and pulling you down a side street that lead into town rather than up towards the hill.

"That's insane.  _You're_  insane!" You complained as he continued on down the path that would lead to the Second District, if you weren't mistaken.

"Oh please, you act like you've never ditched school for the hell of it before." He smirked at you despite your worried face, and you sighed.

"I haven't!"

"Well, first time for everything. You call Ven, get your alibi set up if it makes you feel better, and I'll call Roxas. Come on, stop dragging your feet!" He said, pulling you along at a quicker pace.

"Where are we even going? Why are you calling Roxas?" You whined, regretting this decision already.

"We're going to our secret hiding place, and I'm calling Roxas because we always skip together."

"What about Sora?"

"What  _about_  Sora?" Riku rolled his eyes, and you shrugged. Sora wasn't exactly the best at lying to anyone about where he had been or what he had been doing, so it was probably fair that they didn't invite him along for their skip day.

"...You've done this before, right?"

"Only every year." He replied confidently, and the two of you entered the Second District, just like you suspected. Only then he took a turn you had never seen before, and then another, then another until you didn't even really know where you were in town anymore. There was a waterway and what looked like a bared off sewer. "We can make this a new tradition; pulling a ditch day the day before survival training weekend. Because let's face it, all school work and teacher expectations of attention go down hill around this week anyway."

"Guess I wouldn't mind a break from it all, but--you've got to be kidding me." You stared blankly at him with a sour expression on your face as he took a step right into the water that was pouring out of the sewer grate after checking that no one else was around.

"Come on already." He urged you to follow him but you felt more like punching him than following him. He rolled his eyes, "I'll hold your shoes and socks for you if it's that big of a deal, princess."

"Why would I take my shoes and socks off to walk in sewer water?"

"...So your socks don't get wet?"

"I'm wearing tights!" You snapped, ready to leave him standing in the sewers and go back to school.

"Oh my god, fine. Hop on."

"Are you serious?" 

"Yeah. This is a serious piggyback ride." He shot you a sarcastic look before he turned around so you could jump on his back, and you groaned disapprovingly as you stepped over to the edge of the sidewalk and hopped up. "It's not even sewer water, anyway."

"Really? Cuz it looks an awful lot like you're taking me into a sewer." You growled as he began to make his way towards the metal bars capping off the sewer entrance. They were just wide enough that he was able to squeeze through with you still on his back.

"Give us some light." He instructed as the darkness of the sewer took over as he continued further inside. You had to reposition yourself on his back so you could hold on with only one arm, slinging it across his chest and gripping his opposite shoulder as you held out your other hand and allowed a fireball to radiate from your palm. "I meant your phone...but whatever works best for you." He mumbled, his voice echoing slightly off what you now saw was cave walls. It wasn't a sewer at all. Just a small, strange cave with water running through it.

"What is this place?" You asked, marveling at the greenish stone walls. There was a spot where the water met with land, and soon enough you were able to hop off Riku and walk around on your own. There were chalk drawings on the walls, various works of graffiti, and even a height chart mapping out Riku vs the Rostar twins over the years. You laughed, noting that even from a young age Riku had them beaten badly. You were pretty sure you were taller than they were until maybe a year ago. 

"Our secret hideout. But come on, there's more." He said, pulling you away from the well decorated cave wall before you could see any of the more embarrassing drawings he did as a kid. Eventually, there was a stark contrast in cave wall and regular, building style wall in front of you. It was like there was a house down here. Riku opened the door to it, and then you were faced with a flight of stairs that took you to a basement, and from there Riku led you to the main part of an abandoned house surrounded by water in yet another cave you had no idea existed.

"This is incredible. Whose house is this?" You marveled, looking at him briefly for answers before returning your attention to looking around. Outside the house was nothing special, maybe ten feet of shabby grass in all directions surrounding the circular home before it spilled below the surface of the glassy still water. But inside, there were various nicknacks and pillows and toys that the boys had brought over the years. It didn't look like they came here very often, but there was still clear evidence that this was their spot.

"No idea. We found this place abandoned years ago. No one has ever come by to claim it, so it's ours now." He shrugged, digging in the basket in the corner for something or another while you continued to walk circles around the room inspecting everything. He then pulled out several candles and began to place them around the room, and you followed along behind him lighting them all with your fingertips until the room was full of warm and homey light.

"Where even are we? Still in town? Under ground?" You asked as you peeked out the window to the watery cave surrounding the house again.

"Somewhere behind the Third District, I think." He shrugged, then got that unmistakable trademark Riku smirk as he watched you smile in amazement, "So...happy you decided to skip?" 

∞

Over the course of the next hour, you had called Ven and gotten yourself a safe excuse out of school. He complained about it, of course, but only because he couldn't ditch too. At the end of the day, he needed to stay there in case anyone really got sick or hurt at school. Riku and Roxas cooked up some excuses of their own, Riku had you call the office and tell them you were his mother and that he was sick today, and Roxas showed up at the hideout a few minutes later and wasn't worried about it in the slightest so you figured he had it covered, too.

Then, shortly after Roxas turned up, Axel, Reno, and Demyx popped up, scaring the shit out of all of you. They saw Roxas ditch Sora to double back to the Secret Hideout and decided to follow him.

"How did you guys even find this place?" Axel marveled at the surprisingly cozy space the boys had carved out for themselves in the old house.

"We were playing in that alley one day while our parents were at lunch, and Sora accidentally kicked a ball though those bars. We found it when we were looking for our ball." Roxas shrugged, blowing the dust off an old record player that was set up in the corner and giving it a crank to test if it still worked. He seemed satisfied enough, and grabbed a record from the pile beside it and began playing some music.

"Never took you guys for a bunch of delinquents." Reno smirked, looking at you very specifically as he said it.

"Ah, come on. Who doesn't need a skip day every now and again?" You shrugged, and he nodded.

"Fair enough. I didn't do any of my homework for today anyway." He sounded pretty pleased with himself as he strode over to one of the bean bag chairs. You recognized it right away as identical to the one in Roxas' room. The more you looked around the more you noticed there were a ton of things that looked like they came straight out of his room, or Riku's. This really was their secret spot.

"It's just that time of year." Demyx added with a cheeky grin. It was pretty obvious everyone had given up trying to do well in school, what with Spira right around the corner.

"You guys aren't pissed we found your little spot, are you? We won't tell anyone." Axel said, and Riku and Roxas both exchanged a glance and brief shrug.

"Nah, it's cool. We're all friends now anyways, right? No big deal." Roxas said, and Axel clapped him on the back.

"That's the spirit!"

∞

You mostly just hung out talking and sitting around in a circle, enjoying each other's company and laughing the day away. Reno and Axel went on an entertainment run to get their laptops and some games, and then later Demyx and Roxas got to excitedly chattering in the corner and eventually left to go on a run of their own and returned a half hour later with a couple of guitars and a bass. The big empty cave and still water surrounding the house made for some pretty incredible acoustics, so the boys quickly got to jamming together.

One thing led to another and Roxas finally worked up the nerve to ask if Axel and Demyx might want to form a band, and they quickly agreed. Reno insisted he get to be the manager, and you and Riku threw out increasingly shittier band name suggestions while Axel and Demyx argued over who got to be lead guitar. Eventually Demyx folded and let Axel take it, since he was the only one who actually knew how to play the bass anyway. Roxas, on your insistence of course, was lead singer and played backup guitar.

At first, they were just jamming and freestyle playing, but eventually Reno threw on a Twilight Thorn's record and they started to play along with it. You actually knew the words to most of the songs from spending time loafing around Roxas' room listening to music all the time, so you eventually left your mocking corner with Riku and were up on your feet singing along with Roxas and dancing. Reno joined you all too happily, and the two of you killed any good band practice the boys were getting as you belted out the lyrics poorly and distracted them with your bad dancing.

Roxas couldn't look at you without blushing, but you couldn't stop smiling every time he sang. You loved his voice, and thought this was the most he had ever let you hear it. It helped that you were singing along with him, loudly and badly, but he still couldn't make eye contact without flushing. You, on the other hand, just didn't feel embarrassed around any of them. Reno was right there with you being an idiot, and you even caught Riku singing along to one of the more well known songs when it came on. Everything about it was perfect and relaxing and let you forget about everything else going on with you and your life.

Even though it was a more alternative rock song, Reno began to salsa with you. Or at least it felt like salsa. You weren't completely sure, but there was a lot of dipping and spinning and him leading you by the hips. The circular house had a kind of raised platform in the middle made of the same stone as the floor, and the two of you took to dancing up there while the boys played their instruments. Axel and Roxas were on their feet, playing near each other so they could match on their guitars, but Demyx was sitting in a bean bag chair near Riku, in an almost lazy posture considering how quickly and how well he was playing the bass.

The song finished and Reno spun you into his chest, put an arm behind the small of your back, then dipped you down so far you thought your head might hit the stone floor. You had been working on your flexibility with Aqua for a couple months now, and it was clearly evident in your new-found dipping skills.

"Olé!" Reno cheered as the instruments and record all came to an immediate stop. You kicked a foot out for good dramatic effect as he did so, and everyone laughed at what goofballs you were. Reno slung you back up to your feet, and you were able to join in with the laughter as he brought you up too fast and you collied heads with him. You held a hand up to your forehead where yours clunked into his then made your way over to Riku to join him on the big bean bag, taking that as a sign that maybe it was time to take a dancing break. A slower song came on next anyways, and you weren't looking to try waltzing Reno after that little surprise end to your salsa. 

"You make a good groupie." Riku smirked at you as you settled down next to him. The bean bag chair shifted under you as you sat, and the two of you kind of sank into the middle of it. It wasn't ideal, but there were only three bean bag chairs, and Demyx was in one with his bass, and Roxas took the other as soon as the song ended.

"Groupie? I'm the lead tambourinist in the Foxy Roxy's." You shot back defiantly, and Roxas groaned from across the room despite all the noise and music.

"That is  ** _not_** our name." He snapped at you, and you just laughed and laughed.

"We should make this our practice space, you know? No one will be making any noise complaints here." Demyx said.

"Yeah, maybe. But we gotta have a drummer, right? There's no way we're getting a drum kit through those bars out there." Reno sighed, and the boys slipped into band talk that frankly wasn't terribly interesting to you and Riku, so you started to tune them out and have your own conversation.

"So what's the plan tomorrow, anyway? I'm sure they were probably going to tell us about it today, but you kidnaped me."

"Kidnaped?" He raised an eyebrow at you, giving you a look.

"Fine, made a willing hostage out of me." You corrected and he rolled his eyes.

"You seem pretty comfy for a hostage." He nudged the arm you were leaning on with his elbow, and you buckled over into him. He was trying to be impudent, but all it really did was make your close seating arrangement even closer.

"Stockholm syndrome." You shrugged, throwing your legs over his lap and reclining back comfortably in the seat, thinking if he was going to try playing dirty and shoot off elbows willy nilly, he was gonna learn a thing or two about shooting them at you.

"Good god, what have I done? Now I have no where to hide from you when you get like this." He sighed, and you laughed triumphantly.

He went on to explain the way survival day worked, and the two of you seemed completely lost in your own little corner of the room while the others talked band stuff. Roxas found it hard to concentrate on the conversation–which was mainly Axel and Reno arguing with each other over technicalities–and was instead watching you and Riku. You were awful close, and though Riku kept making disgruntled and annoyed faces at you as you conversed, Roxas could tell he was loving it. They talked about you sometimes, but it was mostly just Riku venting his frustrations about how busy you always were and how even when you weren't busy you were always surrounded by people. And now here you were, completely dedicated to spending the next few hours with Riku, away from everyone else. Roxas knew Riku probably wouldn't try to make any kind of move on you with even this small group around, but still...something in his gut felt wrong as he watched the two of you.

He watched as you threw your head back laughing, hit Riku's arm and then covered your mouth to try and stop. Riku looked smug and pleased with himself, like he just made a mean comment about something or another and knew it would crack you up. When you finished stifling your laugh you began to make your reply using wild hand gestures and expressions, and Riku had to put a hand on your knee in his lap to keep you from rolling backwards off the bean bag as you turned to look at him more full on while talking. He liked your funny way of talking, and the way your eyebrows couldn't stay still and you were constantly rolling your eyes and smiling...but he knew Riku liked it too. Roxas watched the hand Riku had innocently on your knee and bit his cheek, messing up the chords he was playing on the guitar in his lap.

You finished whatever it was you had been saying and Riku let go of any cool guy act he was trying to pull and gave a full-hearted laugh while looking at you like you were amazing and insane at the same time. You were so funny, Roxas thought. He loved that about you, but sometimes, like now, he resented it terribly. You charmed anyone who met you right away with your wit and pretty smile. It was no wonder guys like Genesis and Zack were after you, and when he really thought about it he supposed Riku was the most popular guy in your grade, so it kinda made sense he was in the same dating pool as you. Roxas hated to admit it, but he felt...jealous.

"Yo, Rox-Pox. You still in there, or what?" Reno waved a hand in front of Roxas' face. He had been completely zoning out. So much so that he had stopped playing the guitar in his lap altogether and was just staring at the wall above your head now. At least Reno didn't catch him staring at you.

"Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry. What is it?" He asked, running a hand through his hair and trying to bring himself back to reality.

"We were discussing artists to cover? Any thoughts?" Reno asked, and Roxas stared at them blankly. Last he was listening, they were talking about drums.

"He's not listening to you. No one is listening to you. We're all too hungry." Axel groaned, setting his guitar on the ground and leaning on the neck tiredly.

"Man, what I wouldn't give for a sub." Demyx sighed dreamily.

Roxas jumped as a hand landed on his shoulder, "Hey, you guys are talking about food?" You asked happily, shooting Roxas a look and laughing after he started.

"When did you get up?" He asked blankly, thinking he looked away for two seconds and you went from cozy on the bean bag with Riku to all the way over to his spot in the room.

"When I heard talk of food, duh." You shook your head at him like you expected him to know more about you than that.

"Hey, I got an idea." Axel smirked, and Reno looked like a lightbulb went off in his head.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Reno got an identical smirk to Axel's.

"Oh yeah." Axel nodded.  It was kind of incredible how similar they looked when they both got to scheming.

∞

Their parents owned the hotel that was located just a little ways out from the entrance to the secret place, so the twins were able to sneak into the kitchen there and steal some grub with relatively no fuss. They stole a loaf of bread, some ham and turkey cold cuts as well as peanut butter and jelly, and even got some fruit and chips for everyone. It was a pretty nice spread, and plenty for all of you. Things almost turned ugly when Reno suggested you should be the one to assemble all the sandwiches, but Roxas quickly diffused the situation by offering to do it himself instead. You had no problem with joining in and helping him make them, but you very distinctly refused to make the one you knew would go to Reno.

In fact, it was kind of a fun activity for everyone to sit around the raised stone circle in center of the room and make your lunches while Demyx stole Axel's guitar and played for everyone. You were pretty sure you could hand any instrument imaginable to Demyx and he would be able to play it like a pro. You were enjoying it, but Axel seemed grumpy that Demyx could play his guitar better than he could.

"Do you take requests?" He asked finally, his irritation building up to a breaking point. A breaking point Demyx distinctly missed.

"Yeah, sure." He shrugged.

"Stop." Axel grumbled, and Demyx puffed out his cheeks at him

"Oh, fine." He sighed, setting the guitar down and joining the sandwich circle. "But not for you. Because I'm hungry."

The afternoon drew on, and eventually 3:00 pm rolled around. The school day was officially over, and the boys now had to decide if they were gonna hang out longer or head home.

If you were being honest you kind of wanted to go running home to your bed, feeling a bit worn out after keeping up a neutral pain-free expression all day, but part of you was willing to stay as long as the guys were. You were having fun, even if it hurt. You liked to think it was worth a little discomfort to try and be normal. Your friends were worth it, and you proved to yourself today that you could do it. Maybe you could even stand to be in a group without a great healer and muddle through on the trip.

You sighed a little, thinking at some point you would need to tell people about your Geostigma. Even if you were able to manage on your own without constant help from a healing hand, you'd still need whoever you were with to know so you didn't have to front like nothing was wrong all the time. You could put up with pain alright now, but pretending like you didn't feel anything at all was exhausting.

As if on cue, your phone began to ring in your backpack. You had almost forgotten about it entirely, and hadn't noticed the slew of messages you got from people over the course of the day. You only noticed it now because it was buzzing up a storm as someone called you.

"Whose phone is that?" Demyx asked, hearing it first.

"Wait, you guys have service down here?" Reno asked, looking from his useless phone to the people around the circle, shocked.

"Yeah." Riku shrugged, holding his out and showing full bars on the screen. But it wasn't his phone going off now.

"Do you not?" Roxas smirked, showing that his phone worked too.

"Our wireless plan is bullshit." Reno cursed at his phone after Axel looked at his and sighed.

"Oh." You mumbled, digging in your backpack and checking the screen to see who was calling.

"Who is it?" Roxas peeked over your shoulder to check.

"Aqua. Crap, I forgot I have a lesson with her today." You sighed heavily, hitting the accept call button and knowing exactly what she was going to say. 'You can miss school, but you can't miss training.'

∞

After making a mad dash home, you changed as quickly as you could into some exercise clothes and headed into the backyard before Aqua arrived just to make sure it looked like you really had been home all day weren't skipping school.

She took it easy on you for the most part, only making you do a little flexibility training before settling into magic practice for the day. Ven came home from school and made himself cozy on the back porch where he could watch you practicing, and Cloud came out with a bowl of snacks and then settled in himself. Tifa was apparently off getting ready and packing for survival day with Yuffie, and Zack and Gippal were working in Cid's garage since there was no blitz practice. So you had to practice with an audience, but not the full audience you were expecting once Cloud came outside.

They were up on the porch furniture talking excitedly about tomorrow, and you were having a hard time ignoring the chatter despite Aqua's best attempts to get you to do your cool-down meditation. You were sitting crosslegged on a yoga mat in the soft grass of the backyard, hands face up on your knees with light, gently fizzling lightning swirling around your fingers. All you had to do was keep the lightning constantly flowing while breathing deeply and listening to Aqua's guided meditation.

"Pain is just a feeling. It is apart of life, just as happiness, sadness, or anger are natural parts of life. You will always feel pain, but you do not need to suffer from it. Suffering is the effect the pain inflicts. It can be endured. You must learn to separate the two. Feel your pain as clearly as you feel your joy. Embrace it as apart of yourself; don't run from it, or cover it up. If you can endure pain, you can live without suffering. If you can learn to control this pain, you will learn to control yourself." She said, and you tried to visualize a version of yourself who didn't flinch in agony every time your heart stung with stigma.

The lightning flickered between your fingers and shorted out as a wave of stigma hit you and rocked your focus off her words entirely. You winced and made fists as you let out a staggered breath, trying to kill the terrible ache in your body as quickly as possible. Aqua saw this and put her hands on yours.

"Don't get frustrated. Don't bury the pain. It's just a feeling, and nothing you can't endure." She said in her calm and supportive way. There was healing magic coming from her hands, but it seemed more like she was checking the level of discomfort you were feeling rather than actually healing you. Like she was checking to make sure she wasn't telling you to do anything you couldn't handle yet.

You took in a deep breath and fought to keep the grimace off your face as you forced your muscles to relax despite the sharp burning pain spreading through your limbs and core. You struggled to keep breathing through it all, but you did feel oddly calm and at peace with the sensations despite the intensity.

"Good, that's great ≈≈≈≈≈≈. Keep working at it, just like this. You'll get there. This isn't a sprint to pain-free living. It's a slow walk that you'll work at everyday, but you're doing great. You know you have my full support, and the support of your family and friends. I mean, just look at them all." She said, and you opened your eyes and looked behind you at the small group gathered on the porch chatting.

"Yeah..." You mumbled, feeling a little bit like they had all come to watch the show as you made an idiot of yourself in training, but she would never see it that way so there was no point in saying it.

She smiled and gave your hands a squeeze before getting to her feet, "Go write in your journal for a bit, we're done for the day. Take it with you during the survival weekend. It'll help you clear your head."

"Alright, I will. Thanks." You gave her a smile and began to stand up, rolling up the yoga mat and preparing to go back inside. You hated journaling. It didn't come easily to you at all, but Lulu insisted you do it to try and combat depression and make you face your feelings more head on. You supposed it was kind of nice. Kind of.

"You know, no one gives mages enough credit. I've never seen someone get lightning shot at them like that and be totally fine after." Cloud said as you walked up to the porch. He was referring to Aqua's blocking drill where she shot lightning at you and you had to keep up a magic barrier. She chose lightning because it would be the least effective against you in case your barrier didn't hold, but to outsiders it must have looked pretty brutal.

"Yeah, you're real impressive. You can almost touch your toes." Ven added with a snicker. He had been there long enough to catch the tail-end of flexibility training where she was trying to make you hold some crazy yoga pose on one foot and you kept falling over. 

"I'll touch your toes." You shot back in a grumpy tone and he rolled his eyes at you.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, that was pathetic."

"Yeah, I know. Realized it was stupid the moment I said it. Too tired to care." You sighed, throwing the yoga mat at Cloud in hopes he'd put it away for you in the porch activity bin behind his seat before heading inside to the kitchen for some water. If he didn't put it away you didn't really care either. It was mostly just fun to hit him with it.

You decided to shower after a snack break, then went downstairs where Ven had moved to watch TV and plopped down on the couch to begin writing. It was boring and felt asinine, but you did feel calmer while you were journaling about your day.

"Whatcha writing about?" Ven asked after the show he was watching ended and he got bored enough to look over at what you were up to.

"Making a sandwich for lunch." You shrugged, biting your pen cap as you wrote. You weren't about to start pouring your heart and soul onto the page anytime soon, so you kept it simple and just wrote about your day. About skipping school and making lunch with everyone, and how just that small group activity made it feel worth it to you to try and return to a normal life.

"Wow. The riveting life and times of ≈≈≈≈≈ Strife."

"Shut up, asshole. What do you write about?" You asked, knowing Lulu gave him a journal too when she gave you yours.

"I've written maybe two pages in the past two weeks, and one of them was comparing and contrasting ice cream flavors, so..."

"So 'the riveting life and times of Ventus Rostar' should keep his mouth shut." You kicked at him from your side of the couch, but he was just out of range. He started laughing and was about to reply with something equally snarky when the doorbell rang. You both turned to look over at the door, and you wondered aloud, "Who could that be?" Everyone was supposed to be off getting ready for tomorrow's survival training, and none of the usual suspects who might show up at your door bothered with the bell.

"Ten gil says it's not for me." Ven shrugged and you sighed, knowing that was his way of telling you he wasn't going to be getting the door. You grumbled as you got to your feet and walked over to the door.

"Olette, hey! What're you doing here?" You asked after pulling it open. She was still in her school uniform and was carrying a stack of papers with a green sticky note stuck to the top corner.

"Hey ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. You weren't in school today, so I got your homework for you." She shrugged, handing over the papers to you. You smiled as you took them and looked at the sticky note which detailed in neat handwriting all of your assignments. "I had to get Sora, Naminé, and Pence to help me get your chem, math, and poetry assignments, but hopefully it's all there."

"You're too sweet, thanks so much for this." You said, looking over the worksheets a little before looking back at her and smiling.

"So, you were sick today?" She asked, then gave you a once over. "You don't look sick. You look nice, actually."

"I'm in my jammies." You gave her a skeptical look, holding out the loose fabric of the oversized t-shirt you were wearing. It might have been Cloud's, even, because you certainly didn't recognize it, but it made its way into your clean laundry so it was yours now.

"You always look nice, even when you're in your jammies." She rolled her eyes, laughing at you, and you made your way outside with her and walked over to the front porch swing to sit, and she joined you. "Riku and Roxas were out today, too. There must be a bug going around."

"Don't worry, there's no bug." You tried to keep yourself from smiling, and she sighed heavily.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, what did you do?"

"Nothing!"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." She gave you a very deadpan look.

"Oh, fine. I had a skip day."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈!" She hit you in the arm.

"What? I needed to get ready for tomorrow. Riku's the one who came up with it."

"So the three of you were in on it?" She put her hands on her hips and looked like she was about to scold you terribly, but all she said next was, "Why didn't I get an invite?"

You laughed, "Because you would have never gone along with it."

"I might have!" She gave a mock-offended scoff.

"Never in a million years. Look at you, you got me photo copies of textbook pages for my homework."

"...I was just worried you wouldn't have the right the books at home to get everything done, and–"

"See? You're perfect. You'd never miss a day of school. You know, Zack and Gippal tried to get me my poetry assignment, too?" You said, digging in the pocket of your sweatpants and pulling out a note. On it, written in near-illegible handwriting, was scrawled a few page numbers, a sentence where the only word you could make out was 'potpie' and a drawing of a chocobo.

"Wow. Is...is that a secret code you've made up or something? Is it written in Al Bhed?" She couldn't help but laugh at their attempt.

"No idea. I'm pretty sure they did this completely un-ironically too. Like they thought I'd really be able to get," you looked at Olette's note and read, "'page 84, problems 1-7,' from  _that_." You looked back at the boys' note and shook your head as you returned it to your pocket. Honestly, you kind of wanted to frame it, it was so stupid.

"Well, at least their hearts are in the right place. That's what matters, right?" She shrugged, looking up the night sky.

"Try telling that to the teachers." You laughed, leaning back on the wooden frame of the porch swing, causing it to rock slightly.

"You know..." She stopped short, seeming almost like she was hesitant to finish the thought, "Genesis gave Naminé his notes to give to you. They were much more detailed than hers, so we included a photocopy in there."

"Aw, that was nice of him. You guys really went to a lot of trouble...and the whole time it was just for my skip day."

"Yeah, you're really more trouble than you're worth, you know that?" She shot you a look from the corner of her eye and you laughed.

"I know, I'm so sorry. I would have told you not to bother, but I didn't know you'd do all this." You nudged her playfully and she laughed a little herself.

"I guess that's fair." She nodded, then sighed and let her head fall, "Still...it seems like Genesis really likes you. And you like him, right?"

You sighed too, letting your gaze fall to the stack of papers on your lap, "Oh, I don't know. I mean, I do. But Basch has kinda banned me from seeing anyone, so I guess it really doesn't matter what I think or who I like. It's not gonna happen."

"Oh...that really sucks, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. It's not like I need a relationship right now anyway." You picked at the free bottom of the sticky note on the papers, trying to sound casual about it even though you thought it was kinda stupid for Basch to try and impose that kind of rule on you, all things considered.

"Well, you know, on the school trip it's not exactly like he'll be there to police you. Who knows what might happen? Has Genesis asked you to join his group?" 

"Uh, no...not that I can remember. And I think I'd remember that." You bit your cheek, wondering if maybe he didn't really like you all that much after all.

"I dunno. You might have missed it. It is you, after all." She grinned, nudging you with her shoulder a little.

"Hey, even I'm not that dense." You shot back, and she smiled at you like you were hopeless.

"Yes, you really are that dense. Some days I wonder if you've even notice there's a nose on your face, you're so oblivious." She laughed, and you rolled your eyes.

"Whatever." You brushed her comment off, then began to think about the trip some more, "Man, it's really happening isn't it? And soon. It still feels made up to me somehow, you know?"

"Yeah, I get that. The idea of breaking the school year mid-stride to go play off world must seem a little crazy to an outsider. But it's how we've always done it." She shrugged.

"It sounds nice, though. Really nice. And if we pass this survival training then we're really going to be on our own out there. It sounds amazing actually."

"Kinda scary though. There's some downsides to no supervision." She said, sounding a bit hesitant about the whole thing. It was true, she only signed up for the advanced, free-reign trip because you were also doing it. If it was up to her she would have stuck with the traditional, regimented school trip given to those who didn't try or manage to pass survival training.

"See, that's your goodie-goodie side talking, and you don't need to listen to it. Like you said, who knows what might happen? I think it'll be great. I'd really like to get away from my parents for a little while, too."

"Why, is Basch's dating rule really so terrible for you?" She asked, smirking at you but also feeling a little conflicted at the same time. This rule certainly didn't help her feel like she was any closer to confessing her attraction and feelings for you, but she also liked that it meant none of the boys who were also interested in you could do anything about it. Frankly, it didn't seem like such a terrible idea from her point of view.

"No, but I still don't like being forbidden from doing something that just kinda seems silly to me anyways."

"It's not silly. Feelings for someone are never silly. You need to–Ah!" She began, but before she could make any kind of point, Basch stuck his head out the door as if he knew you two were talking about him. Olette seemed to jump and immediately swallow whatever thought she just had.

"Sorry girls, didn't mean to scare you." He apologized as he stepped outside fully, "≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, dinner is ready."

"Okay, I'll be there in a sec." You nodded after laughing a little at Olette's reaction to his sudden appearance.

"Will you be staying as well, Olette? We can certainly make room for you."

"O-oh, no, I couldn't intrude. I have to get home soon anyway. Thank you, though!" She said, quickly getting to her feet.

"Of course, dear. ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, hop to." Basch gave Olette a smile before looking at you and gesturing with his head for you to get inside.

"Alright. See you later. Thanks again." You said as you got to your feet and walked back inside.

"No problem...see you tomorrow." Olette said, clutching her school bag as she smiled a goodbye to you and she began to walk down your front driveway.

 

∞

Dinner was the normal kind of quiet and awkward for your family, with random bursts of chatter about everyone's day and plans for the weekend to break up the sounds of silverware on plates. It was all fairly light and casual conversation, until near the end when Cloud brought up the school trip. This got your parents talking about the kind of medical care you would be getting while on the trip, and Ven was forced to tell them that it was pretty much up to you to come by for healing, since he would be stationed at base camp while you would, assuming you passed survival training, be off on your own. That got a whole debate going about whether you should be forced to stay near base camp, or whether your parents should tell the school about your illness to make sure they had someone watching you. You of course protested heavily, thinking you'd get help if and when you needed it and that was that. Your mother thought it was best for you to stay put with members of staff who were aware of your problems. Cloud agreed with you, saying that the whole point of the trip was to get out and experience life and culture on another world. Basch actually agreed with the two of you, also adding that since geostigma was non-contagious no other students were at risk from you, and since it was chronic you were going to need to learn to live with it no matter the location without needing to depend on constant aid. Otherwise you might as well just be sent to live in a hospital ward. You got very uncomfortable with the silence that followed from your mother after Basch's suggestion, and Ven stepped in and said he would call Lulu over so your parents could discuss it further with her.

You didn't want to have anything to do with this conversation, knowing it would just get you riled up and end up passing out and hitting cold, hard floor again. Frankly, your hip bones couldn't take it anymore, and you didn't want to make Ven heal any more of you than he already did. Instead, you willed for Basch and Lulu to prevail over your mother and went upstairs to write some more in your journal. At least you could write all those feelings you had going on right now without worrying about overdoing it. This was the first time you truly started venting in your journal, and your grumpy scribbling sounded like the pen was scratching the paper more than it was inking it. You had to admit, being able to tell your mother off on paper felt pretty good, and there were zero ramifications.

After about an hour, Ven came up into your room looking very tired. He ran a hand through his hair and sank heavily onto your bed beside you, staring at the floor. You had been laying on your tummy comfortably while you wrote, but as he sat down you turned over so you could face him.

"So...they shipping me off to hospice, or what?" You asked and he shook his head.

"Nah, Lu wouldn't let them do that to you. She's talking some sense into your mother. Loves to worry, that one." He sighed, acting quite deflated despite this seemingly good news.

"Why do you look like someone kicked a puppy in front of you?" You were a little afraid of the answer, and his glum expression wasn't really helping.

"Your parents think it might be best..." He sighed heavily and brought a knee up onto the bed so he could sit sideways and properly face you as you leaned against the headboard in anticipation of whatever he was about to say next, "if they tell all faculty members about you."

"They what!?" You shot upright, even though you leaned back against the headboard specifically to brace yourself.

"It's okay, take it easy." He put a hand on your shoulder and tried to calm you down. You sat cross legged on the bed and pinched the bridge of your nose as you tried to process, "Hey, it'll be okay."

"Yeah." You nodded, trying to believe it, "Yeah, maybe it will. Right? I mean, teacher-student confidentiality, right?"

You looked at him for confirmation on that, but he just took his hand away from your shoulder and rubbed the back of his neck while avoiding eye contact, "≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, that's not a thing."

"Why would you say that to me?" You hit him lightly, and he gave a weak laugh.

"I'm sorry."

"Word is gonna spread to everyone, isn't it? Big secrets and small towns don't mix. I'm gonna have to tell everyone. They might as well have me scream it at the entire student body over morning announcements." You said, needing to return to pinching the bridge of your nose to try and keep yourself under control.

"You don't need to do anything you don't want to do."

"It sounds like I don't have a choice." You were trying so hard, but you were beginning to feel that stinging in your eyes. Your biggest fear was people you didn't know thinking of you as the 'sick girl' at school. You already felt like too many people were always looking at you because you were new.

"Hey, c'mon." He scooched closer so he could put a comforting arm around you, "No one has done anything yet. There's still time for us to try and convince your parents not to do this." He could see you were really fighting to keep your emotions under control, but were starting to lose out to the frustration. You had told him to stop being such a therapist to you all the time, but he couldn't help himself. He tucked your head under his chin and gave you a big squeeze to show he wasn't planning on letting go any time soon. You could yell at him for being too therapisty later if you wanted, but he couldn't just watch you fall apart in front of him and do nothing.

You gave in and turned your face into the soft fabric of his t-shirt, biting down hard on your lip to keep it from quivering. A few tears were leaking out despite your best efforts, but you refused to let this turn into another crying episode. All the while, Ven just stroked your hair soothingly and tried to wait for you to calm down, feeling incredibly guilty somehow. Like he was the one who ruined your life. After all, he had been the one who removed the Nethicite from you, and when Aqua thought she felt the stigma in you, he had been the one to confirm it. He couldn't even tell you living with the stigma wasn't that bad once you were better trained in magic, because your magic was completely opposite to his. He could handle it, and you couldn't, and he had to be the one to constantly remind you of that. You were always so close to finally being happy, and he ruined it for you again and again.

Even if you didn't blame him now, he shuddered at the thought that one day you might put it all together and realize that he was the one causing you all this pain, even if it was unintentional or indirect. ' _The healer has the bloodiest hands..._ ' He heard the words echoing in his head, and as your hand clenched with a fistful of his shirt as you bit back your fraying emotions with a barely audible sob, he realized how badly he didn't want you to hate him.

"You'll be okay, kid." He heard himself say, though he didn't realize he was speaking until he heard it.

"Hey, shut up." You gave a quiet laugh, pulling away from him and wiping your eyes with the back of your wrist, "Don't call me kid."

"How is it you can still smile with all those tears in your eyes?" He asked as you finished trying to dry your eyes.

"I don't know, but I deserve an Oscar." You sighed a little as you dropped your hand back onto your lap before looking over at him. He was looking very intently at you, and his eyes were a bright golden color. The last time you saw them this color, it was kind of unsettling and shocking to you, but you had gotten pretty used to seeing the green eyes over the past few weeks, and somehow, at this moment, it didn't seem like anything had changed.

"You'll be okay." He said again, correcting himself as he moved to brush the hair out of your eyes. He let his hand trace down your cheek after, and he continued to look you in the eye. It was a vague thing to say, but the intensity of his gaze told you he meant it 100%. You didn't care if it was some intruder. As far as you were concerned, it was Ven. He heard everything Ven did, saw everything he did, and probably felt everything Ven did, too, and he was still looking at you like that after everything. He was always there for you, no matter how much of a wreck you were, so you didn't care if this was some stigma defect of his. You looked back into those golden eyes and realized something you had been feeling for a long time. It was Ven, you loved him. 

You began to close your eyes and lean in, and he took the hint right away and followed suit. His lips pressed against yours and he cupped your cheek to help him guide you to the best angle for a kiss in the frankly awkward setup you had with you sitting cross-legged on the bed and him sideways next to you. You didn't care though. You didn't care if it was weird, or not traditional sweeping romance. That wasn't really you anyway. Your heart felt light for the first time in such a miserably long time, and instead of pain you felt butterflies. You had just been on the verge of bawling your eyes out, but now you couldn't stop smiling even though it meant little interruptions to your kiss. He didn't seem to mind, and even began to smile and laugh a little himself. You just realized you were in love with him, and by every right it seemed like he loved you too.

It was strange, like a completely foreign emotion to you now, but you were happy. Warm, soft healing magic began to course through you from the hand he had on your cheek, and you began to feel like if you just had him with you, you could get through having the stigma. With him, you could get through anything. You couldn't believe it, but you were happy.

That is, until he suddenly pulled away looking wide-eyed and completely terrified. He started hyperventilating as he shot off your bed and covered his mouth with his hand. It was like he couldn't catch his breath as he stared at you, his eyes darting from your face to your arms to your legs and back, over and over, like he was surveying you for damage.

"Ven?" You tried to get up after him, but he threw out an arm to stop you from getting near him.

"Don't! Stay back!" He didn't sound mad. Instead it sounded like he was scared. "I don't want to—I-I..." He had to stop talking as his hyperventilating choked out all speech from him and he held a hand over his racing heart. It was like he was having a panic attack. He tried to speak again, like he wanted to explain himself after taking a look at your face with those terror-stricken blue eyes, but the words wouldn't come out. He shook his head in disbelief, tightened the hand he had over his heart into a fist as he backed away from you until he hit your bookshelf. A couple books clattered to the floor, and he charged out of the room full speed.

"Ven!" You called after him, but by the time you got out of bed and over to the doorway, he was long gone. Your heart sank and you were left standing in the doorway of your room.

Why did everything always have to come crashing down in flames around you?

∞

Ven didn't come back to your house that night and his phone must have been off because the line wouldn't even ring. Eventually you just gave up, and had to start thinking about tomorrow and finish packing your survival gear bag. Then, it was just time for bed, and that was that. You tried to put it in the back of your mind, but you had a hard time forgetting the look on his face. 

You didn't sleep much, so you were more than a little grumpy when Cloud walked in to wake you up at 5:00 a.m.

"It's so early it hurts." Cloud sighed, flopping onto your bed and closing his eyes. You rolled up to a seat and looked around the room like you didn't recognize it.

"So this is what 5:00 a.m. looks like..."

"I guess. I've never seen it either." He shrugged, "You ready for today?"

"No." You replied simply, thinking you weren't even ready to get out from under the covers.

"That's the spirit." He laughed, then sighed again as he realized he was too tired to laugh.

"We get this over with and we're off to Spira, right?"

"Right. Well, one week left of school to decide groups, then one week of training camps, then Spira, but yeah. Get this over with, and you're half way out the door." He explained, and you knew he must have heard some of what your parents and Lulu were discussing last night. He was all for keeping the family from fighting, but wanted nothing to do with your mother's plan to tell everyone about your illness without your consent. 

"Then let's get this over with." You said, throwing off the blankets and getting to your feet.

∞

Unsurprisingly, no one came over to your house this morning for breakfast. Not even Tifa. It was just too early for any of that. You and Cloud went downstairs and ate your last proper meal for the next three days in silence. It was going to be a bitterly cold weekend, but at least there was no rain in the forecast. Aqua went over some methods of making shelter using your magic, and you at least knew making a fire to keep warm wasn't going to be an issue. Your pack was full of mostly food, so the only thing you were really going to be battling it out with in the wild was boredom.

You wished you could talk to Ven about what happened before this weekend began, but there was a no cell phone rule and there was no way you'd get to talk to him this early in the morning. You just had to wait it out and try not to overthink it.

The two of you walked the dark streets and climbed the stairs to the school, only to find the mass of zombie-like, dead tired students gathered in the courtyard waiting for Auron. You saw Yuffie and Tifa sitting nearby, and even Yuffie was too tired to talk.

Auron showed up at 5:30 on the dot with his faculty helpers in hand. They split you into groups by grade, then led you into different sections of the woods behind the school that stretched all the way back behind the housing districts. They would drop off students into different locations here and there, until finally it was your turn. You were told to stay put while the rest of the group kept going.

Now it was just you alone in the woods, waiting for something to do or some kind of instruction. It didn't seem like any was coming, or at least not for a good long while. There were still a lot of kids left in the group when you were dropped off, so you figured no one would stop by until everyone was in place. Or maybe this was just it. This was your spot for the next three days.

You decided to get settled in and leaned your giant backpack against a nearby tree while you looked around for firewood. You could get a fire started no sweat, but keeping it going without needing to use your magic round the clock would still require some more rustic techniques. You got your wood, then began unpacking so you could start organizing everything.

"Strife, how are we looking over here?" Auron asked suddenly, walking up from out of nowhere and scaring the shit out of you. It caused you to drop your pan and cooking tools, which crashed into your pile of firewood.

"Going great." You sighed, getting to your feet and brushing your hands off on your pant legs.

"You're not inspiring my confidence here, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." He raised an eyebrow at you, then pulled out a clipboard with a checklist on it. "Where is your shelter? I don't see a tent pitched, or a—"

"Relax, I'm getting there."

"Getting there? You've been out here for two hours and what do you have to show for it? Get serious." He said, beginning to write something or another down.

You clenched your jaw and stopped trying to restack your firewood. You turned to him with a determined look on your face, then stomped a heel down hard into the soft earth. Behind you, a large square platform of stone rose two feet out of the ground. You shifted your foot, then stomped it down again, this time shooting three walls up around the perimeter of the platform and making it look like cube on a raised platform. You shot Auron a look before turning around and stepping up into the cube, raising two fingers and swishing them forward, causing a thin sheet of rock to extend from the back wall and make a flat roof to really complete the cube. There was just one wall left, and you weren't going to raise it until nighttime. You put a hand on your hip, then gestured a hand at the cube.

"Voila. Shelter." You hopped down from your cube then sighed contently as you looked back at it, "I'm even gonna make a fireplace on that back wall there. You know, make it real cozy."

"Very cute, Strife." He shook his head with a scowl as he crossed out whatever he wrote on the clipboard and then wrote something else. "Water source?"

You kicked a foot at the dirt again, but this time to dig a little. Once you were down into the rich woodsy earth, you held a hand out over it and easily found the water hiding below. "Now, Basch gave me a survivalist water bottle that could probably filter out the plague, but I have a pot for boiling, too, if you'd prefer. I'm sure you'll believe me when I say fire-starting isn't a problem?" You asked, looking over your shoulder at him as you crouched over your pile of supplies to grab that water bottle.

"You're very talented, I can see Lulu's faith in you is not misplaced. You can't rely on magic for everything...but I suppose for the sake of what this trip is, you'll probably manage just fine. You have passed the preliminary inspection. I'm going to leave this CommSphere here with you." He said, pulling out a blue sphere contraption and dropping it on the ground, "It will give us an audio and video feed on you. If there's an emergency, we'll know and come to help." He then looked at the CommSphere to check it was functional, then shot you a very pointed look, "Don't blow it up. I know how you lightning types are."

You tried not to smile at how obvious it was he was talking about Lulu, since you  _knew_ there was some kind of thing going on between them, "I only promise to try."

"I await repairing your fried CommSphere with baited breath." He sighed, then went on, "Are you prepared to handle a fiend attack?"

"Yeah, probably." You shrugged.

"What is your strategy?"

"My strategy?" You shot him a look, "My strategy is to be physically stronger than anyone who attacks me. My strategy is to hit them really, really hard."

"You don't even know how much you and Cloud are alike." He shook his head, checking one last thing off the clipboard before putting it away. "That's it from me, Strife. You are to remain here for the next two days, then on the third you may attempt to look for others if you wish. This training is designed to test you individually, but ultimately this trip it will be a group effort. Good luck out here." 

"Thanks. I'm gonna start making s'mores in a bit, if you wanna come back." You gave him a cheeky smirk and he gave you a dry look. You learned from watching Reno and Axel every day in math that exasperated Auron was the best Auron. Lulu would never admit it, but judging by some of the interactions you'd seen between the two of them, she was in the same school of thought as you. 

"I'm sure you'll be just fine, Strife." He began to walk on to go check on the next kid on the list, then he turned and gave you what you could only describe as a snarky look, "Oh, and one more thing; if you put your fireplace inside the shelter, make sure you put in a chimney. Unless you're going for a smoke room."

"Chimney. Got it." You said, giving your cube another look and trying to think how to do this. You hopped back up into it, put a hand on the back wall and forced the stone to bubble outwards in a kind of rounded out chimney, then cut an opening in the bottom where you could stick the wood in and made another one in the top for the smoke to escape from. You moved your wood stack inside the cube, and set up a few test logs at the base of the chimney and set it a-light.

You grinned as the flames danced to life and took to the logs giving off a nice comforting heat and drove out the chill. This was going to work. It was more a test of your magic creativity than a survival test.

∞

The first day was alright for you. You got your cube all settled, moving your sleeping bag in good and cozy by the fire, then got your snack corner nice and near that, and then you got everything else organized around that. It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it was better than a tent, in your opinion. You even made little shelves out of stone to help store everything so it wasn't just lying around on the floor. You spent the whole day getting settled, so you weren't even really thinking about how long the hours were without anyone to talk.

Night was harder for you, despite closing the cube and keeping it a fairly nice temperature in spite of the freezing temperatures outside. It was just so quiet, and you could hear too much nature and wildlife. Not to mention how much time to think and over think you had on top of regular stigma pains. You had terrible dreams all night long, and woke up tossing and turning every few hours. It gave you plenty of time to write by firelight in your journal and snack on some of the chips and pop tarts you had brought with you, at least.

Day two was miserable. It was freezing cold outside so you just wanted to stay in the cube, but it was so  _fucking_  boring in there. You spent a lot of time practicing your Al Bhed writing, then you did some of Aqua's yoga stretches and even tried to meditate. When that got boring you got so desperate you did all the homework from the packet Olette had brought you. When you finished everything, you got so restless you went out foraging for anything that might be edible. You weren't going to eat anything you picked from the ground, since you had plenty of food to eat for the next few days, but you figured you drop the mushrooms and berries you found in front of the CommSphere so Auron at least knew you could.

You just ran out of things to do, really. You weren't going to be out here long enough to bother with improving your cube or your surroundings, and you were feeling really drained from the magic you used yesterday on top of your shitty night sleep. You eventually found yourself shut in the cube, tucked into your sleeping bag, with your journal in hand again trying to make sense of that night with Ven. Part of you felt guilty for thinking he and good ol' yellow eyes were the same person and kissing him, but you were also angry. He never talked to you about it. Ever. How were you supposed to know what was going on if he never told you anything about it? He just kept expecting you to handle it with no explanation whenever it happened, so that's what you did. He couldn't really get mad at you for that, but you worried he was anyway. He just looked so scared, and in your experience scared usually lead to angry sooner or later.

Needless to say, day two sucked. Day three, however, got interesting. You were pretty comfortable where you were, and didn't want to risk getting lost while out looking for other people, so you stayed put. You shot up flares of fire magic into the sky so anyone who was out there looking for other people could see it and come find you.

Sora and Roxas found you after a couple of hours of this, and when you asked how they found each other they just shrugged and pulled out walkie-talkies. You cursed yourself for being too stupid to bring something like that. They had just been chatting it up the whole time, while you stewed in silence for what felt like years. Riku was next to find you after Roxas walkie-talkied him, and they all decided your set up was way better than theirs and they would all move their camps here.

You continued to shoot off flares, and eventually Cloud and Zack came wandering through your camp while the boys were getting their tents up.

"Oh this is so much better than Fort Gippal." Zack mused, giving an impressed look around your campsite.

"Fort Gippal?" You raised an eyebrow, already knowing you didn't like the sound of that.

"He tied a bunch of tents together. It's not that impressive." Cloud explained as Zack lifted his watch to his mouth and sent some coded message to, you assumed, Gippal.

"The chocobo has landed, and this choco-nest is better than yours. I repeat, better than yours, desert shark. Over." He saw you looking at him curiously, and held the watch out for you to see and explained, "SOLIDER survivalist satellite watch." 

"Why were we the only ones who didn't think to bring radios or walkies or something?" You asked Cloud and he shrugged.

"Ours are broken." He replied simply. Two days of painful isolation, all because Cloud was too lazy to go to an electronic store beforehand.

"Puppy pal, this is desert shark. I'm not reading you. I can't hear you over how fake that sounds. Over" An irritated Gippal responded via Zack's communicator, and you laughed. It would all be so much easier as long as there were other people around to help. You already felt a hundred times better after having just had people to talk to for a couple of hours.

Over the next few hours Gippal came up with a big group of people all carrying a massive tent monstrosity. He had been bragging about his tent creation over the walkie the whole time he was walking over, then as soon as he saw your cube he dropped the corner of the tent he was carrying and had to go take a walk to calm down.

With Fort Gippal and Fort ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ combined, it became pretty easy for people to see the smoke from your big bonfire as well as your flares, and as more people joined just the sheer volume level from all the chatter helped draw people near. Soon enough, there were very few people who you were friends with who hadn't found their way to your camp.

Once enough of you had gotten together, it stopped being survival training and kind of turned into a party to celebrate your last day out in the woods. Everyone set up their tents around in a circle, and you and Axel made a giant bonfire in the center. Reno brought hot dogs, and Gippal had cans of chili and beans, and Yuffie had even brought some skillet-pop popcorn. For a lot of you, it was the first hot meal you'd had in days. Then of course, came the s'mores. Demyx even brought along a small ukulele, claiming it was necessary to his survival to have something to play. Gippal was then able to rig his CommSphere to emit wifi, and then he hooked his phone up to it and projected music and movies.

It was actually a full on party.

You worked with Zexion to come up with the smartest design for an earth-magic-made shelter, and came up with a few different variations. You made a kind of stone igloo and teepee, as well as more cubes to try and test different things out, and people began to set up in them. Roxas even tried to make his own little ice palace imitation-cube, but with no way of keeping a fire going in there, it was kind of useless, and a little jarring to be able to see through the walls.

In the middle of the night, after most people had settled into one of the earth magic shelters or the mega-tent, Gippal and Zack snuck up to your cube and pounded on the sides of it until you opened the wall. They each had a CommSphere in hand, and sinister smiles on their faces. You of course immediately went to get yours, wanting in on whatever they were up to.

"I dare say we made it through survival training." Gippal said, and Zack nodded.

"We're not out of the woods yet." You said, glowing with pride over that pun while gesturing around at the trees.

"You stop that." Zack scolded you, swatting you jokingly on the back of the head. 

"Pace yourself, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. We've got a long trip ahead of us, save some for Spira." Gippal gave you a sideways glance as he flipped the CommSphere over in his hands and started messing with the panel hidden on its underside.

"Come on guys, it's cold. What are we doing out here?" You asked after watching him fiddle around with the wires for a bit. You could see clouds of your breath with each exhalation, and you missed your cube.

"Well, it's official. We're celebrating." Zack said, popping off his gloves and handing them over to you. After all the earth magic architecture, you were a little too spent in the magic department to warm your hands up that way, so you happily took the gloves. While you were putting them on, Zack grabbed the scarf Gippal was wearing and then draped it around your shoulders.

"What's official?" You asked, pulling at the large gloves to make sure they stayed on before adjusting the scarf.

"We made it. This is now officially the early life portion of our DreamTeam Wikipedia page." Zack couldn't keep the smile off his face, and Gippal shut the panel on the CommSpehre and smirked a little himself.

"Here's to a very happy start." He said, setting it on the ground at his feet, then taking yours and Zack's and stacking them right beside his, "≈≈≈≈≈≈, do the honors." He extended a hand out like it was up to you now, and if you knew your boys you knew exactly what they were wanting you to do.

"Blow 'em up?"

"Oh, sky high, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. Sky high." Zack nodded, and the three of you began to back away from the pile to a 'safe' distance.

"Alright, but just because I help you blow these up doesn't mean I'm agreeing to being on your DreamTeam."  You said, taking the glove off one hand.

"You'll come around." Gippal shrugged.

"You don't know that." You rolled your eyes at their undying confidence that this was going to happen.

"Look at you. You want to blow these up just as much as I do. Face it, you're one of us." Gippal crossed his arms.

"One of us, one of us!" Zack chanted, putting his hands on your shoulder and shaking you a little as he still waited eagerly for you to blow up the CommSphere pile.

You just shook your head and laughed lightly as you held out your hand and let lose a small but powerful blot of lightning right into the heart of Gippal's rigged CommSphere, which sparked and combusted, flying into the air and sending the other two stacked on its side to ricochet off it in either direction. Zack put one arm around you and the other around Gippal as he sighed in contentment while Gippal's CommSphere exploded in the air, showering the earth with a rainbow of brightly colored shards of sphere glass as they fell. 

"Can't think of a better beginning than that." Zack said, and you nodded. It was kinda nice. Like fireworks, almost, as the circuitry inside the CommSphere scattered and exploded. 

"Kumbaya, anyone?" Gippal asked, and you and Zack both groaned, knowing he was about to break out into full song any second now and ruin it all.

"I'm going to bed." You declared adamantly, wanting to run away before it got any worse. You dipped out from under Zack's arm and made a break for your cube before they could say anything about it. You had only gone a few dozen feet away from the campsite, so you were able to get back in no time at all and seal yourself in before they could put up a fight.

∞

 The next morning, bright and early, someone came a banging on the wall to wake you up. When you didn't start moving, a hole slid open in the wall. "Hey, get up. Time to go home." Someone said, and you rolled over to glare at them, then your heart jolted into your throat, beating a mile a minute as you saw Ven standing there in the sunlight. "≈≈≈≈≈≈, get up." He said again, and then you almost laughed as you realized it was really Roxas.

"That's a fine 'good morning,' jackass." You sat up, running a hand through your hair. After three days in the wilderness you didn't even want to know what it looked like. You really needed to make a mental note to bring a hair brush to Spira with you.  

"Good morning, sunshine. Better? Now c'mon. Auron's coming to get us and take us home in just a little bit. Pack up." He said, reaching into the cube and grabbing one of your hiking boots and throwing it at you.

"You pack up." You grumbled, pulling one leg out of the sleeping bag at a time and putting the boot he just threw at you on.

"I am packed up."

"Well, good for you...kiss ass." You rolled your eyes.

"You swear a lot when you first wake up." He noted with a snicker as he hopped inside and started to help pass you things to stuff into your backpack. 

With Roxas' help, you were able to get everything packed up in around 10 minutes. You had enough time for breakfast before Auron came strolling up with a bag for you to put all of the CommSpheres in. Everyone returned theirs but you, Zack and, Gippal, and the look on Auron's face when he distinctly noted this was something you would go back to when you were feeling sad and needed a quick pick-me-up. Your final act of this boring training weekend was to put out the fire and return the cube to the earth. It was like you were never even there.

Very few people were awake enough to be chatty on the walk back to the school, so it was mostly a two hour silent hike back to civilization. You were returned to the school courtyard, where certificates of training completion were handed out, signifying you had passed and were going to be allowed free-reign in Spira. Then you were pretty much allowed to leave. There was no school today, so you and Cloud took off for home and a hot shower.

Basch was waiting for you guys on the front porch with a camera in his lap, and he jumped up with a childlike grin on his face as the two of you strolled up, covered in dirt with messy hair and baggy under-eyes. If you hadn't seen him up there hiding behind the porch railing the sudden flash from the camera might have scared you, but he was so excited to get the jump on the two of you that he started laughing before he had even done anything. It was kind of adorable, actually, so you pretended to be surprised for him...though Cloud just pulled his hood up and hid his face.

Basch wanted to hear all about it and was chattering away excitedly even though it was like 6 in the morning. Luckily Cloud wanted nothing to do with it and pushed passed him to get inside, leading the way for you to follow. Inside, your mother was talking with Lulu on the couch, and they made an attempt to get you to go over for a med check, but you didn't want anything but a shower now. They told you to go ahead, and that they'd send someone in to check on you in around thirty minutes.

So, that's what you did. You threw your backpack and survival gear into the corner of your room, then tried not to laugh at your appearance after three days in the woods before you hopped into man's greatest invention, the shower. Mostly, it was just nice to have something thaw your thoroughly frozen bones for the first time in days.

You didn't bother waiting for anyone to come up before flopping into bed in your coziest jammies. The door opened, but you couldn't have been bothered to look over at who it was. They would just have to go about their medcheck without bothering you, because your head had become reacquainted with a pillow and you weren't about to move.

"So...how was it?" Ven asked and you rolled over to look at him, half convinced you were just imagining it was him again. There was no reason for Roxas to be in your room right now, but still. Stranger things could happen. Still, it seemed like it really was Ven this time.

"Hey...what are you doing here?" You asked, forgetting about your pillow and sitting upright. He had been hovering by the door, but eased into the room and sat at the desk chair, "It's like 6 a.m., I've never even seen you move before 7:30.

"Oh, you know. I'm on the clock, and all." He rubbed the back of his neck and avoided eye contact.

"What?" You sighed and he shrugged.

"Nothing."

"Why are you being weird?"

"I'm not–"

"Just spit it out, already. What's going on?" You asked, getting to your feet and turning the lights on so he couldn't just avoid looking at you or talking to you anymore.

"Fine. I need to talk to you, but I don't quite know how to say it." He got fidgety, running a hand through his hair and messing it up so it was even more spiked and messy than usual.

"Okay, then I'll start. I have something I'd like to say to you, too." You said, then you suddenly realized exactly how hard it was to keep going now.

"Really? You do?" He sat up a little, looking genuinely surprised.

"Well, yeah. That was really strange and scary and I'd really like to talk about it. I've given you three days, and now I want some answers. Ven, I really care about you, just tell me what's going on."

"Oh." He looked down at his feet, "I, uh...oh..." He mumbled, about to reach for his hair again to give it another nervous tussle, but you grabbed his hand to stop it, "I'm kinda working on building up my nerve here. I've never done this before, just give me a second."

"Okay...I guess..." You stopped to sigh, thinking this was a lot harder than you thought it would be to get him to open up, so you went on, "Well, look. I just wanted to tell you that I've really appreciated everything that you've done for me the past few week. And I know you're only back here because you're 'on the clock' or whatever, but I'm really happy you're here right now. Having you around...it just makes everything easier."

He stared at your connected hands and shook his head like he was fighting very hard to find words to respond to you, but he could only come up with, "I haven't even done anything yet."

You gave his hand a gentle squeeze, "I'm not talking about your magic. I'm talking about you. Frankly, I'd probably be okay without the magic, but not without you. Ven, I think I l-"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, I have to leave." He cut you off before you could finish whatever it was you were about to say that he couldn't stand to hear you say, knowing what he was about to be doing. He pulled his hand away, got to his feet, and walked over to the window. 

"W...what?" Your heart skipped noticeably and painfully, but that was kind of the least of your worries . That wasn't exactly what you planed on hearing after nearly admitting your feelings for him.

"I'm sorry, but I have to go." He sounded like he was in disbelief, but still talking through it.

"Like, right now from this room, or..."

"No, like Lulu and I are leaving. We have to go to Midgar. Today. I need help from someone who knows a little more, and she wants to see if she can learn anything more about the stigma to try and help you. We have to go. I'm...not sure how long we'll be gone, either...a couple of weeks, minimum."

"But..." You felt very much like your insides were made of glass and he just threw a rock at them.

"This is a terrible way to tell you and even worse timing, I know, but...I have to go with her." He walked back over and sat beside you on the bed now that he had finally dropped the bomb. Now it was just time for damage control.

You forgot how to breathe for a second and had to stand up to create some distance between the two of you so you could try and wrap your head around what he was saying, not wanting any damage control. You wanted a change of plans. "But I just said—"

"I know, and I'm sorry." He got to his feet and tried to take your hand again, but you pulled away from him and held your hands up to your forehead in disbelief as you sat over at your desk.

"You're...you're leaving me?" You looked at him in utter disbelief.

"I'm sorry."

"You can't go...You can't--you...I don't..."

"I'm sorry, I have to. ≈≈≈≈≈≈, I'm so sor—"

"Stop saying that!" You begged, getting to your feet again, "Just don't go. You can't go."

"It's not that simple." He rubbed the back of his neck and you felt like shaking him.

"What am I supposed to do without you? I need you."

"No, you don't." He put his hands on your shoulders to try and calm you down as he walked you back over to your bed and sat down with you. He looked at you with very tired blue eyes, like he hated saying this as much as you hated hearing it, "I wish I could stay. I know it doesn't make much of a difference to say it, but I really wish I could."

"But, if you go...there's no one else who can help me." You felt like you were about to start crying again, but nothing was coming. It was like you were empty inside. Like everything had shattered, and now there was nothing left.

"Stop it. You don't need me half as much as you think you do." He gave your shoulder a reassuring rub, but you weren't able to take any comfort from it.

"That's bullshit." You shot him a sharp look. You knew it wasn't like he was doing this to hurt you, but it still hurt. You needed him, and you needed Lulu, and they were abandoning you. They might have been going in the hopes to help you more in the long run, but you needed them now, too.

"Cloud will help you, and if he's not enough Aqua is still going to be here." He tried, but even he knew it wasn't a very convincing argument.

You sighed, thinking you should have seen this coming. Things did always tend to go from bad to worse in your life, so you should have expected something like this would happen, "Is this because of the kiss?"

"Of course it's because of the kiss."

"Well, that's stupid, because—"

"No, it's not. It's not stupid. It's happened multiple times now. Do you know—can you even begin to imagine how fucking terrifying it is to have your body hijacked? I black out, lose total control over everything. When I come back, I don't know if I've kissed you or killed you. And before you say it, yes, I could have killed you. ≈≈≈≈≈≈ you don't know him like I do. You don't know what he's done, or what he is capable of."

" _Who?_  What  _who_  is capable of? Of course I think it's stupid, because it feels like your punishing me for something you won't even tell me about!" You were frantically yelling at him, desperate for any explanation that could make this feel okay, and it looked like he was about to give in and tell you, but he just sighed.

"Trust me, this isn't punishment for you." He thought about going on to say he was doing it for you, to make sure he wasn't ever able to lose control and hurt you, but something about the way you were looking at him told him you didn't want to hear that.

You were quiet for a while, trying not to be angry, but you hated how secretive he was being. "Just tell me. You don't have to leave. Just tell me, maybe I can help." You pleaded, but he just gave you a small smile. It was infuriating.

"You can't help me." He gave a weak shrug, and you sighed.

"I don't want you to leave." 

"I don't want to leave either, but..."

"But I need you here."

He laughed, "No you don't."

"Fine, I don't need you, but I want you here."

"Come on, you'll be okay. Besides if I'm taking care of you then, who's supposed to be taking care of me? Lulu's going one way or another, and I need her watching me. I'm the one who needs supervision, not you."  

"You sure about that? Because I'm not."

"Course I'm sure. And if I'm wrong, you can beat me up for it when I come back, because I promise you; I'm coming back for you." He punctuated his statement by giving you a kiss on the top of the head.

"Don't take too long." You sighed, letting your head fall heavy against his chest. You weren't sure if it was his magic or your exhaustion catching up with you, but you began to fall asleep against him shortly after.

"Vanitas." He said to you, and you felt like you heard it in a sleepy haze.

"What?" You mumbled, trying to wake up enough to understand what his last few words to you were.

"His name is Vanitas."

"Whose name?" You blinked a few times, but the sleepy feeling wasn't leaving you.

"Never mind. Just go to sleep." He shook his head, and you happily complied.

He got up once he knew you were fully asleep and tucked you into bed before taking his usual seat at your bedside to monitor you while you slept until Lulu came in to tell him it was time to go.

"Ventus? It's time." She said quietly from the doorframe.

"Okay, I'll be right there." He replied, reaching to give you one last med-check before going. As he leaned forward, he noticed how close he was to you, and how peaceful and calm you looked while you slept. He hesitantly reached forward to brush the hair that had fallen over your face away, and felt the electric tingle of your skin in his fingers as they swept lightly over your skin. He sighed quietly, thinking he didn't even get the chance to tell you he felt the same way about you, if that even was what you were about to say. It would have just made it even harder to leave, at any rate.

He put a hand over your forehead, and shot you with enough magic that you would be able to sleep peacefully for a couple of hours. You wouldn't wake up until they were long gone. He had a hard time taking his hand away from you. "I'll be back as soon as I can." He promised, running his thumb over your cheekbone. His eyes dropped down to your lips, and he thought very much about kissing you before he had to say goodbye, but he forced himself to decide against it. Either you wouldn't know he did it, or you would know and it would only make it harder on you both to be apart.

He sighed again, then finally tore himself away from your bedside and left the room, not feeling ready to go to the docks with Lulu to leave at all, but still going all the same.

∞

**If you were wondering why it took me a couple months to get this update out, it's because it's over 28,000 words....and because I've been playing a lot of video games over the winter break.**


	12. Chapter 12

** Chocobuck Hunters: **

**•Find the Community Reference $2**

**• Find the Big Little Lies Reference for $2**

**•Find the Hannibal Buress Reference $2**

**•Find the Santa Clarita Diet Reference for $2**

**•Find the Arrested Development Reference for $2**

**•There is a canon left handed character making an appearance in this story, but which character did I say in a previous chapter was actually left handed despite fighting and playing sports with their right hand? $4**

**•Any comment you leave over 500 characters long is an automatic $2 chocobucks. Anything over 1000 is  $5. Make my day and max that box at at 2000 for $10.**

** •KH Trivia Bonus Round ($1 chocobuck each): **

**•Where do you find/who do you have to fight to obtain the Oblivion Keyblade in KH1?**

**•Where do you find** **/who do you have to fight to obtain** **the Oblivion Keyblade in KH2?**

**•Riku says he can always when Ansem is nearby because of Ansem's ______.**

**•Which Drive form in KH2 only levels up when you defeat heartless?**

**• Who is the boss in the final battle of the Hades Cup in KH1?**

**•And as always, you get $1 chocobuck if you find a spelling mistake and point it out to me.**

**Happy reading!**

**∞**

When you woke up next, you were completely alone in your room. You were exhausted after three days in the woods, and slept for 9 hours straight. Ven and Lulu would be landing in Midgar any minute now, you thought as you pushed yourself up in bed and threw off the blankets. Ven's sleeping bag was even gone from you room, as if to punctuate his absence even more heavily. They were really gone.

Figuring it was probably best not to dwell on your sudden abandonment, you decided to go out and do something with your friends. You knew Roxas had a shift at the ice cream shop in town today, so you threw on some clothes, grabbed your phone, and off you went . You decided to get outside by climbing down the tree outside your window. It wasn't so much that you were sneaking out, but you didn't want to run into your parents on your way out and be forced to talk with them about anything. They were just going to try and bring up how you were feeling— not great— and if there was anything they could do— there wasn't— or if you needed anything— you didn't. At least not anything they could give you. So, you snuck out.

The ice cream shop was bustling with children. With it being a day off school for everyone, it made sense for a bunch of people to be out and about, but you still didn't like it very much since you were feeling so down.

"Roxas," You called out to him as you walked into the store and up to the counter. He was leaning against the back counter behind all the ice cream flavors, staring at his phone boredly with a sampling spoon in his mouth while Pence did all the work serving people.

"I'm on break." He mumbled, biting down on the plastic spoon so he could talk without removing it.

"I can see that." You laughed, and he looked up from his phone as he realized it was someone he knew talking to him, not just someone reading his nametag.

"Oh hey. What are you doing here?" He asked, looking clueless and fumbling to pull the spoon out of his mouth.

"I heard there's great steak here." You rolled your eyes, and he nodded. It was an ice cream shop. What did he think you were doing here?

"Yeah, okay, fair point. Can I get you something?" He stuck his phone in his back pocket and then pulled on some plastic gloves.

"Small sea salt, please." You said and he grabbed a cup for you and began scooping, "When do you get off?"

"Half hour. You want any toppings? The Sora Special? Or should we make the ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ surprise?" He asked, going over to the toppings counter.

"What's the ≈≈≈≈≈≈ surprise?"

"It's a surprise." He shrugged, giving you a smirk.

"Fine, hit me." You laughed, and he began shoveling on a little bit of everything with extra gummy worms. "Wow, if that's my special, I don't even wanna know what the Sora Special looks like."

"Four ice cream flavors, all toppings plus fudge, sittin' pretty in a cone. A guaranteed chin-dripping, hand-sticking, good time."

"Wow. That's...well, I guess that sounds like him, actually. Is there a Rockin' Roxas?"

"Well, yeah but...it's just the original sea salt on a stick."

You gave him a dry look, "Woooooow."

"Hey, I don't mess with perfection." He laughed, and you shook your head as he handed you the cup of ice cream and walked you over to the register, "Sometimes I'll put an extra stick in there, just to make sure there are no popsicle-related accidents."

"Edgy. No wonder you wound up in a punk band."

"It's not a punk band."

"Axel's in it and he's a punk." You shrugged.

"Yeah, he's  _a_  punk, but he's not  _punk._ " He said, like the distinction was the most obvious thing in the world.

"My mistake. I guess no one here is really quite as Punk-Roxas as you." You said with a big toothy grin, causing him to glare something fierce at you.

"If you're going to start making puns, you can just take your ice cream and go."

"Don't be like that."

"I will hang your picture in the window saying 'do not serve.' Pun-free zone, ≈≈≈≈≈≈."

Pence laughed, catching the tail end of your conversation after he'd finished serving a woman and her kids on the other register, "You better watch out, ≈≈≈≈≈≈, or he'll start ice-screaming at you."

"Oh my god. I'm clocking out early." Roxas took off his gloves and threw them forcefully into the garbage can under the counter. "Dock my pay, I don't care. I refuse to put up with this." He took the time to give both of you dirty looks before taking his punch card over to the machine on the wall and actually going through with it.

"Drama queen. We both know you were off the clock as soon as ≈≈≈≈≈ walked in." Pence rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, because I was literally on break when she walked in." He said, taking off his apron now.

"Whatever. It's fine. I can go it alone until the shift change at 4:00 anyways."

"So...you're free to hang out now?" You asked him as he began to sign off on the register.

"Not to hang out with you. You're a real pain in my ass."

"A pain in your Rox-ass?" You grinned, and he stopped fiddling with the register and gave you a look. He didn't say anything, though. In fact it looked like he needed to take a second to mentally regroup after hearing what you just said before sighing heavily.

"So I'm gonna go now. You're  _not_ welcome to follow." He scowled at you as he pulled his backpack out from under the counter and slung it over his shoulder, then began to walk out towards the front doors. You grabbed a spoon from behind the counter to put in your cup of ice cream then followed along behind him.

"Oh come on, what are you gonna do without me, anyway?"

"I dunno. Celebrate your absence?" He nudged you with his shoulder as you caught up with him, not angry in the slightest you completely ignored his 'do not follow' request. You laughed, and he broke into a small smile himself, "You're in a good mood today. What's going on? Something happen?" He asked, stopping for a second to unclip his skateboard from the bottom of his backpack and setting it on the ground. You took a step up onto it, then held onto his shoulder with your free hand as he began to roll you along by putting a hand on your back.

"What can I say? It's hard work being sad all the time. I needed a break." You shrugged, taking your hand off him and trusting him enough not to launch you down the street as you took a gummy worm off the top of your ice cream before plopping it in your mouth.

"Well, good. Even if it's at my expense, I'm happy you're happy."

"It's probably more the ice cream than you." You joked, and he scoffed and rolled his eyes, shoving you lightly so you teetered over and had to step off the board for a second to regain your balance. You didn't have the heart to tell him you were mostly just trying a fake 'til you make it approach to dealing with your emotions, so you tried to change the subject entirely by taking a bite of ice cream and smirking at him as you got rolling again, "Salty, but sweet; it's you!"

"Goddamit, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. Shut up."

The two of you wandered through the second district aimlessly, just chatting and joking as he pushed you along. You sat and talked on the edge of the very same fountain he and Sora had knocked you into with their skateboards on your first day while you finished up your ice cream. Around the time you were finishing up, his phone started ringing with the Death March as the ringtone.

"Roxas." You gave him a look like you couldn't ever take him seriously again.

"It's my dad. If you knew him, you'd understand." He shrugged, pulling out his phone and taking a deep breath before answering the phone, "Yes, sir?" He went a little bit pink in the cheeks at how formal he suddenly became in the presence of his father, even if it was just over the phone, but as someone who truly knew what it was like to be afraid of their father, you knew better than to make any kind of comment about it. You suddenly felt so eternally grateful that Basch had been brought into your life, and your mother's. You wished things weren't so weird around the house right now so you could tell him.

You tried not to listen in on Roxas' phone conversation too much, but you were sitting right next to him so it was kind of hard not to overhear. His father wanted him to come home straight away to discuss something Roxas swore he knew nothing about, until finally you heard yelling and then the line went dead after a definitive 'come home now.'

"He's losing it," Roxas sighed, putting his phone back in his pocket and running a hand through his hair.

"What's going on?" You asked, trying not to pry, but also curious.

"Oh, he's just convinced himself that Ven's gone off world or something and wants to know where. But that's insane, I mean...he's here helping you, right?" He looked over at you, and was distinctly aware that you were avoiding eye contact, "≈≈≈≈≈≈?"

"He and Lulu left this morning," You finally said after a noticeable pause.

"They...What? But— _what_?" He got to his feet and began pacing in front of the fountain a little. "Why? Why would they leave?"

"Stigma research, I guess."

"Now? There's gotta be a more convenient time to go than  _now_. What about you?"

"What about me?" You shrugged.

"Why didn't you go with them? Why did they leave you behind? Is there anyone here looking out for you now?"

"Yeah, I mean, Aqua is here. And Ven taught Cloud a little stigma specific white magic. And I don't know, they didn't offer to take me along, I guess."

"This feels so goddamn irresponsible of him! What if something happens to you while he's gone? How could he just leave? Where the hell did he go?" Roxas was taking this about as badly as you had this morning, "No, you know what? Don't tell me. Probably better I don't know if my dad's going to try and pump me for information."

"Are you alright?" You asked him, getting to your feet as well and putting a hand on his arm to get him to stop pacing and hopefully pull him out of 'Roxas meltdown mode.' You picked up his skateboard and put it under your arm as you began walking towards the First District so he was at least moving towards home before he got into any trouble with his parents.

"No, I'm not. It's just..." He sighed heavily, "Things were finally starting to get normal between us. And then he just up and leaves? With no word about it to anyone? Did you even know, or did they leave during the survival weekend?"

He seemed pretty worked up already, but you didn't want to lie to him, "They left early this morning. They were waiting at my house when I got back with Cloud, gave me a med-check and told me they'd be gone a few weeks, then off they went. It wasn't exactly a discussion."

"A few weeks? So what, they aren't even coming back to Traverse Town? They'll go straight to Spira?"

"I guess? Like I said, it really wasn't a discussion. I have as many questions as you do."

"Why didn't he tell anyone?" Roxas wondered aloud, and you started to see why he was so upset about it. The two brothers had  _just_  started speaking with each other again, then Ven just left without a word. Unlike Sora, Roxas hadn't figured out Ven also had Geostigma, so to him it must have seemed like Ven decided to disappear on Lulu's whim to go study up on the stigma. Like his relationship with his brothers and even with you wasn't important enough to stick around for.

"He had his reasons, I'm sure." You shrugged. You weren't about to go spilling Ven's secret to Roxas, knowing how bad that felt first hand, but you still wanted to tell him something, so you kept it vague.

"Still, I couldn't think of a reason compelling enough to leave someone who needs me. It just feels so...selfish. Of them both."

You didn't want him to get the wrong idea about his brother, but also didn't know how to explain it without giving away Ven's personal information, "There's gotta be a reason. A reason why they left me behind, a reason why it had to be today...we just don't have all the facts."

"Yeah? Well that's shitty." He sighed, and you nodded.

"That kind of sums up how I feel about it, too. How did your father even find out about it?"

"Apparently a gummi-dock worker called and told him. They don't want Ven living with us, but they like to keep tabs on him, I guess. Anytime he goes off world, my parents are notified."

"That's...shady." Was all you could come up with.

"That should be the title of my dad's memoir." He exhaled heavily, like he couldn't believe the crap his family was up to today, "Look, I'm really sorry to leave you here by yourself, but I really need to get going. Unless you're ready to go home too?"

"Don't worry about it, go. I thought I'd go pay Zack and Gippal a visit in Uncle Cid's garage anyway." You said, passing the skateboard over to him.

"Okay, sure. I'll talk to you later and let you know if I find anything out." He still looked a little shaken, but his head was at least clear enough that he realized he needed to get home more than he needed to ask you questions you didn't have the answers to.

"Thanks, Roxy. I'll see you later." You said, stopping in front of Cid's shop while Roxas dropped the board to the ground, stepped up, then went rolling away towards home. You sighed as you watched him head off towards the waterway, thinking it was almost a relief that someone else seemed as upset as you were about Ven leaving. But there was nothing you could do about it really, so you just had to keep on keeping on with your life until they got back.

You found Zack and Gippal hard at work over something inside the garage, chattering away excitedly. They didn't even hear you come up to the workbench as some kind of spring based contraption jumped to life and they both cheered and high-fived.

"Yes! It works!" Zack gushed, and Gippal looked schemy.

"Who needs magic when you have good ol' Al Bhed technology?"

"Who needs Al Bhed technology when you have magic?" You said, sneaking up on them and causing Gippal to practically fling himself over his invention to protect it.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈!" Zack jumped in surprise, and Gippal scoffed.

"Oh, it's  _you."_  He rolled his eyes.

"Hey Zack. Gippal. What's up your butt?" You asked, returning his look of disdain.

"Gippal has been stewing over your defeat of his MegaTent." Zack explained as you and Gippal had a stare down.

"A stone cube? I mean really?" Gippal shook his head.

"What's your alternative?" You asked, looking over at the strange metal L on the workbench. It was some kind of spring loaded contraption, but you couldn't tell what it was for based on appearance alone. "The MegaTent 2.0." Gippal said, holding up a blueprint for you that was scribbled with his completely illegible handwriting. You had no idea what any of the words said, but the picture was pretty clear at least. If you were interpreting it right, it was going to be a cube shaped tent, and the metal thing he was working with was a spring-loaded corner of the tent. "It's gonna be fully automatic, ready to go with a push of a button. Whenever we're ready to camp, we pull out the MegaTent 2.0—which will be folded up seamlessly in one of our packs—and set it in place, then it will expand into a fully pitched tent like that." He snapped for emphasis.

"Wow." You raised your eyebrows, not quite sure what to think about that, "Can you show me?"

"Happy to oblige." He said, grabbing the metal part and folding it up, "It's not done yet, and Zack's mom isn't finished sewing the ultra-weather-resistant tent material, but it will be stretched over these babies." He began to fold the metal until it had compressed in on itself, then he held it up for you to see.

"Looks...compact." You shrugged.

"Told you she'd get it." Zack smirked.

"Exactly. It is going to be super compact, super easy to travel with, and..." He pressed a switch on the metal and dropped it on the workbench, where it sprung back into its L shape.

"Cool. But...what's wrong with my cube?" You asked, thinking his innovation was great and all, but hardly necessary if he was planning on having you in the group anyway.

"Because a cube made of stone doesn't sound very comfortable for sleeping. Nobody likes a stone floor." Gippal explained, like it was completely obvious and you were stupid for asking.

"But the tent is just going to be a bit of fabric over a stone floor anyway." You shrugged.

"We could put in a foam layer on the bottom." He shot back and you nodded.

"Yeah, okay, but if there's a foam layer on the bottom, how is it going to be compact enough to fit in a bag easily? That's gonna add some serious bulk." You said, and Gippal huffed. He made a few disgruntled attempts to start a comeback argument, but eventually he just crossed his arms and looked at the blueprint again.

"Well, what did you do? Didn't you think sleeping on stone for 3 days was shitty?" He finally asked.

"Padded sleeping bag." You answered simply.

"The sleeping bag!" Gippal exclaimed, like he just had a eureka moment. You just rolled your eyes.

"Well, we can make the Mega Tent, set it up  _inside_  the stone cube, then use the padded sleeping bags. Boom, maximum protection from the elements and maximum comfort." Zack said, and Gippal got a very serious and contemplative look, holding his chin in his hand.

" _The Mega Cube_..." Gippal whispered, like it was something mythical and sacred.

"The Mega Cube." Zack nodded, and you resisted the urge to groan at how stupid they were being.

"Good to know you guys are using your prep time for Spira wisely." You said, with just enough mastery of sarcasm that they thought it was genuine.

"Hey, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, I had another idea for Spira-prep." Zack said, getting a big smile.

Gippal rolled his eyes with a muttered "Here we go," under his breath before returning his attention to his blueprints.

"I've been toying with some easy cooking recipes, and I was thinking it might be fun to break in the Strife kitchen. We could make dinner for your parents tonight. You know, let them know we're not gonna starve out there."

You thought about it for a second, knowing on the surface this was pretty much just another date request, but it was also kind of a sweet idea. And, you were already trying to figure out some kind of nice gesture to make to show your appreciation to Basch. This might be a perfect opportunity.

"Sure, why not? What recipe do you have?"

"Fair's Famous Frog legs." He beamed.

"That's...That's a joke right?" You asked and he just laughed and shook his head.

"Oh, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. What are we gonna do with you? Of course it's a joke, the frogs here have tiny legs. No sense in eating them"

"Right..." You gave him a suspicious look as the two of you made to leave the garage.

"Relax, smalls. I'm making tacos."

"Oh! Tacos!" That lightened you up right, "I'll call Cloud, have him make sure mom hasn't started anything yet."

∞

"So, we just pack a bunch of these seasoning packets, and then we could pretty much eat anything out there. An old boot would probably taste good with this on it." Zack shrugged, after tearing the top of a spice-mix packet off and dumping the contents into the hot pan of shredded chicken and giving it a stir. You had to admit, it smelled damn good.

"Well, I'm impressed. Who knew you could cook?" You said, continuing to push the peppers and onions around on the skillet from your seat on the counter beside the stove.

"Cooking is not that hard, I don't know what my mom is always complaining about." Zack shrugged, and Cloud scoffed.

"Aren't you the guy who just said he'd eat a boot?" Cloud had decided he would help make dinner, but it mostly became him leaning against the fridge looking at his phone.

"Can it. What kind of food prep have you been doing for Spira, anyway?" Zack asked, shooting Cloud a look over his shoulder before throwing in some pepper flakes over the chicken.

"Uh...none? It's never been a problem. We just get food from shops and restaurants."

"Oh, okay rich guy." Zack rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I am a rich guy, because I always go on hunts for money every couple of days." Cloud shot back, giving Zack a look like maybe he didn't want you going out there with him after all. Well, he was still half convinced the group would be you, him and Tifa no matter what Zack tried, but this just drove it home.

"Hence why this time around I'm learning to cook." Zack said, and you raised an eyebrow as you ate a pepper out of the pan.

"Why don't you just do hunts for money, like Cloud?"

"Because nobody wants to be like Cloud." Zack wrinkled his nose and Cloud shot him a lazy glare.

"Didn't you almost starve in the desert last year with Axel and Gippal?"

"You know..." Zack glared right back at him, and then Basch entered the room.

"Hey kids. How's dinner coming along?" He asked casually enough, but the way he was inspecting the stove made it clear he was probably really worried the whole house would go down in flames before the night was over.

"Almost ready. Just gotta heat up the tortillas." Zack said, giving everything a once over before responding. Meanwhile, you and Cloud just continued to pretty much stare off into space while Zach did all the work.

"Oh, good. Anything I can do to help?" Basch asked, poking around to see what was going on inside each of the sizzling pots and pans.

"Well, we could use a time-killing game while we wait for the timer to go off." Cloud said, noting there were still ten minutes left on the microwave timer.

"Ah, my speciality." Basch got a proud smile and stroked his beard absently as he thought, "Alright, what is the most horrible, cringe inducing word you can think of?"

"Moist." Cloud said, and Zack scoffed.

"That's original."

"You come up with one." Cloud shot back, and Zack thought as he stirred the chicken.

"Ointment." You said with a scowl, and the boys groaned.

"I really don't like the word bologna." Zack mused, picking at a bit of chicken with a fork and giving it a taste test, "Mmm!" He exclaimed, then looked over at you and stuck the fork in another piece before holding it out for you to try. You leaned over to take a bite, then your eyes lit up and you gawked at him.

"Oh my god." You mumbled, and he nodded.

"I know, right?"

"What about you, dad? What's a word you hate?" Cloud asked while staring at the timer, but Basch had his eyes glued to Zack as he looked at you.

"Zack..." Basch grumbled, his gaze going stone cold.

Zack took a step away from you and rubbed the back of his head, "Not...technically a word."

"It's a noun. That makes it a word." Basch argued, and you and Cloud laughed.

"I hate the Strifes..." Zack mumbled under his breath, returning his full attention to finishing up dinner and not even daring to look in your general direction again with Basch in the room. "You know what, it's done. Dinner's ready. Forget the timer." Zack announced, turning off the stove and preparing to make a run for the dining room.

"Excellent. I'll get the dishes then." Basch said, and then suddenly the doorbell rang, "Anyone expecting company?" He asked, looking around the room. You and Cloud looked at each other and shrugged, and Basch sighed at how lazy you both were, "Cloud, get the plates, ≈≈≈≈≈ get the door."

You hopped off the counter and made for the front door, thinking it was probably just Gippal showing up now that the food was done. He had a talent for coming over just as soon as all the hard work had been done...not that you actually did any of the work either, really, but still. You pulled open the door and blinked a couple times to try and keep yourself from staring. Before you was a very tall man with a very big and bushy brown beard and a large scar over his nose. He had a beanie on, which did nothing to tame his long, raggedy brown hair.

"Uh...can I help you?" You asked, trying not to be rude, but also totally thrown by the fact a Viking had just shown up at your door.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Do the Strife's not live here anymore?" He may have looked a little rough around the edges, but at least his voice was pretty normal sounding. Polite, even.

"No, they do. Hang on a sec, I'll go get Cloud for you." You said, stepping away from the door and making for the dining room without taking your eyes off the stranger in the doorway. You walked into the dining room where the boys were setting down plates, "Hey Cloud, there's a Viking here to see you, I guess." You said, and he gave you a funny look.

"Sorry, what?"

"Yeah, I don't know." You shrugged, "He's at the door though."

Cloud exchanged a quick look with Zack before heading out to the hall.

"A Viking?" Zack asked when it was the two of you.

"Lumberjack, maybe. No idea." You shrugged.

"Hey, dad! Leon's here!" Cloud yelled, and Zack started laughing.

"You think Leon is a Viking lumberjack?" He asked you, and you shrugged again. He couldn't figure out how you got that idea, so he poked his head out the door to see what was going on, "Woah...yeah, okay. I get it. Huh."

"So that's Leon?" You asked, peeking your head out from the doorway of the dining room right under Zack's head. You knew enough about Leon from Cloud talking about him, but you never once imagined...this.

"Under all that beard, maybe." Zack mumbled.

"Oh, so the beard is throwing you off too, right?"

"Oh yeah. That's definitely new." He nodded, "Wow, he does look like a lumberjack."

"Is he gonna come inside?" You wondered, seeing that Cloud was still very much talking with him in the doorway despite having called Basch.

"Are you scared of him?" Zack laughed again.

"I'm not scared of him, I'm just a little concerned he's only here to try and eat us to replenish before he can move inland where the lumber is more plentiful." 

"He's not a Viking, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." Zack rolled his eyes at you, withdrawing back into the dining room to continue setting the table. You sighed and joined him, hearing the sound of Basch laughing warmly in the hall about something or another.

∞

Leon had been invited to stay for dinner, and dinner conversation was turned to catching up with his life and what he was up to. He was apparently a SeeD cadet, which you didn't know a thing about, but from what you gathered he was some kind of officer or guard. You kind of stopped listening to him, Basch, Zack and Cloud talking, and instead just focused on enjoying the food. Then, around when you were just about finished with your dinner, there was a pretty noticeable tone shift to the whole conversation.

"So...what are you doing here, anyway?" Cloud asked finally. It seemed like Leon was this model cadet, working as a guard for the isolated prison on the Badlands world, where the infamous Keyblade Graveyard was. It didn't make any sense for him to be here, in Traverse Town, looking like he had been out in the wilderness for a rough couple of weeks.

"I'm here because...well, something happened." He said simply, looking from Cloud to Basch, then even shooting you a look from across the table.

"Okay." Cloud gave him a dry look.

"There was a breakout."

"A breakout? No way." Zack exclaimed. That prison was famous as one of the most secure facilities on any of the worlds.

"Yeah. We don't know how, and we don't know why it happened now, but this is the first break out in Badland's history. We've been searching the world for weeks, but it looks like he stole a ship and got off world somehow. We don't even know how to look for him, now. They finally just started sending us out in droves to different worlds."

"Who is the escaped prisoner?" Basch asked, though from his grave expression you somehow got the inkling he already knew the answer.

"I got your message a few weeks back...consider this my formal reply; Sephiroth is no longer in our custody."

"Sephiroth? Holy..." Zack piped up, but then remembered he was sitting at the table with both of your parents, so he stole one of your choice swear replacements, "crapbaskets." Zack's father had been in SOLDIER, so he knew all about who Sephiroth was and what he'd done to deserve imprisonment.

"So...is that why you're sporting a bird's nest on your face?" Cloud asked with a smirk, like the news about Sephiroth was interesting, but still not quite as interesting as Leon's face.

"Jealous you can't grow facial hair yet?" Leon shot back, and Basch cleared his throat to stop Cloud from responding.

"Kids, if you're finished, why don't you go outside and play for a bit?" He said, though it really didn't sound like a suggestion. You, Cloud, and Zack all looked at one another, figuring he mean you three as the 'kids' at the table.

"It's already dark out." Cloud complained, though you got to your feet right away and started gathering your dishes.

'It's Traverse Town, Cloud. It can be dark out for days at a time. It's never stopped you before. Go throw the blitzball around for a bit." Basch insisted, and Cloud sighed and begrudgingly got to his feet. He was over 18, so you understood his frustration at being treated like a child still, but no one was going to argue with Basch when he had that serious look on his face. Not even Cloud.

"Leave your dishes, muffin. I'll get them." Your mother said to you, so you just awkwardly stepped back from the table, left the room, and headed for the backyard with Cloud and Zack.

∞

A blitzball was actually much heavier than you thought it would be, but you supposed it needed that weight to be able to sink underwater. Little did you know it was a weighted training ball, but all the same Zack and Cloud threw it around like it was made of foam. You were just doing your best to keep up with them without looking like you were trying to.

"Why does Basch have Leon keeping tabs on dangerous criminals?" Zack asked, throwing a chest pass to Cloud.

"I don't know. Probably some ambassador business, I guess." Cloud shrugged, then threw it at you. It thudded heavily against your palms and you had to actively try to stop it from crashing back into your ribs, but you caught it.

"Yeah, he's probably trying to move some families around, or is expecting some fancy visitor or something, so he needs to know if there's anything going on." You said, winding up and launching the ball at Zack. Despite all the force you tried to exert on it, he caught it easily and sent it off to Cloud again in almost one move.

"Or...what if Basch is in leagues with the criminals, and is trying to rehouse  _them_  on safer worlds." Zack suggested, but you and Cloud just scoffed and laughed.

"I highly doubt there's any conspiracy theories to be had here." Cloud said with a roll of his eyes.

"Besides, the Badlands aren't that far from here. He's probably just keeping tabs on the prisons to make sure everyone here stays safe."

"It's not that close. There are lots of other worlds with prisons on them that are closer," Zack shrugged, and Cloud suddenly changed the throwing pattern by returning the ball to Zack, beaming it at his head.

"Yeah, but none of them house the most dangerous criminal in this section of the galaxy." Cloud said as he threw it, and Zack really had to move quickly to avoid getting pegged in the face. He threw a hand up so the ball bounced off his palm and deflected up and over his head before falling to the ground behind him. Zack dropped his hands, crossed his arms, and gave Cloud a good long glare before turning to pick up the ball.

"Basch did pretty extensive work in rehousing people from Gaia...you don't think maybe he and Sephiroth have anything to do with each other? Or maybe Sephiroth knows Basch is responsible for relocating survivors of the Nibelheim reactor attack."

"Zack, I really think you're putting too much thought into this." You said, catching the blitz ball after he threw it to you.

"Hah, now there's a dangerous activity." Cloud laughed as you threw the ball to him next. "Elbow up, champ. Throw it like you mean you it." He said to you after catching it.

"Shut up, Cloud." Zack shot back, getting the ball and tossing it off to you again.

"Yeah, shut up, Cloud." You echoed, using a bit of wind magic to boost your throw so you could hear the thud of the ball slipping from his grip and hitting him in the chest.

"There you go." He laughed.

The three of you stayed outside talking for the better part of a half hour, and Cloud taught you his signature blitz passing technique that involved putting some serious backspin on the ball so that it would fly up into the face of anyone who tried to intercept it. He whispered the secrets of the technique so Zack still had no idea how it was done, infuriating him. When you finally got it down, and the ball slipped from Zack's finger and flew up into his jaw, he scowled at the two of you for laughing.

"This is bullshit. One afternoon with you, and she's got a better arm than I do." Zack grumbled, "Tell Basch to adopt me, I wanna be a Strife. Everything comes so easily to you two."

"So you're saying it's not  _Fair_ to you?" Cloud asked with a smirk.

"Even the puns come easy. You're as bad as ≈≈≈≈≈≈," Zack huffed, "I'm going home."

"No, Zack, I'm sorry." You said through giggles, cracking up after Cloud's pun, not because it was funny but you just loved the look people got on their faces after a bad pun, "Are you okay?" You asked, walking over to check if his face was alright. There was a little dirt on his cheek, but he really didn't seem hurt in the slightest. You brushed the dirt off with your thumb and he blushed and looked at his feet as a small smile found its way to his face.

"It's alright. I'm fine." He shrugged, still blushing with a goofy look on his face, "But I really do need to get home, my mom's been texting me for, like, that past hour."

"Go home then." Cloud sighed, "Why are you like this?"

"I don't wanna go home. All the interesting stuff happens here." He complained, and Cloud rolled his eyes.

"You have a pet miniature chocobo, how is our house better?"

"You have a pet  _miniature_ chocobo?" You gaped at him. "You never told me you have a _pet miniature chocobo_." You weren't sure what to feel, honestly. Excited that you might get to pet it one day, or betrayed that it had taken this long for anyone to tell you, or selfish for having never gone over to his house.

"I'm sure I've told you." Zack shrugged.

"God, I need to start listening to you when you talk." You felt like kicking yourself.

"Yeah you—wait, what?"

"Go home, Zack." Cloud said, rubbing his temples.

"Yeah, alright, I'm going. Whatever. Tell me if Basch is involved in any conspiracies." Zack said, and he began to walk off through your backyard to the front yard so he could leave. Now it was just you and Cloud, wondering if you were allowed back inside.

"Think they're done yet?"

"Eh, who knows? We can probably go up to our rooms though." He replied, and you nodded. Basch probably didn't literally want you to stay outside playing ball until they were done talking. "How are you holding up, anyways? Need any healing?" He asked as you began to head inside together.

"From you?" You laughed, "I'm not that desperate."

"I know it's not ideal, but you let me know if you need me. I'm here for you."

"I know you are, but I'm doing okay. Really."

"Well, I guess I have to believe you. Besides, you're even being nicer to our parents these days. That's a shocker." He commented as he held open the back door for you.

"I don't wanna talk about it." You gave him a look, thinking things were normal again and you didn't need to be reminded of how bad it was.

"Are you still mad at me for all that?" He asked, half laughing, half genuinely guilty about everything that had been happening around home lately. The two of you made straight for the stairs to get to your rooms, not even trying to chance passing the living room where you saw everyone had moved to talk.

"Nah, it's fine." You shrugged, "I mean, you were awful and never apologized...but neither did I."

"Hey, you were awful too." He nudged you, forcing you to trip a little over the step you were on, "You were acting like a six-year-old."

"I was not!" You rolled your eyes.

"See? You're doing it now. You're petulant."

You crossed your arms and mumbled, "...you're petulant..."

"Cute." He scoffed, "Look, ≈≈≈≈≈, I know you don't like it, but you have Geostigma. People are going to worry about you, and people are going to ask questions. You're going to have to grow up and answer them, otherwise...we're just going to worry more."

"You think I don't know that? It's just hard."

"Only gonna get harder." He shrugged.

"Hmmm....hey, got any tips for punching someone in the face? I mean, I guess I can just throw a blitz ball at you, but then I'd have to go back outside, and I don't really wanna do that."

"Such a funny girl. Go to your room." He glared at you lightly, then headed off to his own room.

∞

You had your nightly call with Prompto while laying on your stomach on top of your bed, and enjoyed listening to him tell you all about his day at school and hanging out with Noctis in his high-rise apartment after. It was almost like hearing what your life could have been like in a parallel universe. You'd still be in Midgar, and maybe you and Prompto would have made friends with Noctis together. Then you'd be spending your days going to P.S. 118 with your old friends again, and playing fancy video game consoles at Noctis' fancy high rise apartment. Instead, you were here...alone in your room, deeply pained by stigma, and abandoned by the only people who could really help you. You were doing your best to stay positive, but you were starting to get exhausted with that. You had to lie to a lot of people through your days just to get through them, so it felt just a little bit silly to have to lie to yourself now too. Silly, and sad.

A knock came at the door, and Basch entered with two mugs of his famous Dalmascan tea.

"Hey, I gotta go. I'll talk to you later." You said into the phone as you sat upright on the bed.

 _"Oh, okay. Later then. Have a good night!"_  Prompto said, and you hung up.

"Hey, what's going on?" You asked Basch as he came over and handed you a mug.

"Just thought I'd come see how you're doing. Was that Ven?" He asked as he pulled your desk chair over to the bed and took a seat.

"No, that was my friend Prompto. We used to go to school together back in Midgar." You explained, setting your phone on the nightstand so you could give Basch your full attention. It hadn't even occurred to you that you could just call Ven until Basch mentioned it.

"Ah, yes. Argentum, right? He called the house once, asking for you." He said, and you shot him a questioning look to which he added, "I have a special talent for remembering names."

You raised your eyebrows, slightly impressed, but it also made sense, "I guess it just comes with ambassador territory." You took a sip of the warm vanilla milk and gave him an appreciative smile, "It's really good tonight."

"You think so? I've been trying new things with the recipe. Tonight was the nutmeg-cinnamon experiment." He smiled as he got caught up in the success of his creation, then he remembered why he had come, "But I wanted to talk with you, and see if you were alright after dinner."

"After dinner? I'm fine." You shrugged, not sure what he was talking about.

"Oh, good. I was worried it might have frightened you."

"Frightened me? What, the prison break? Not really. There's only one prisoner I care about, and he doesn't have the power to frighten me anymore."

He hesitated, his lips pressing into a frown, then he finally said, "Your father, I presume?"

"You're my father now." You said definitively, staring into the mug before taking a sip so you didn't have to say anything else.

He had to take a moment to wipe the small smile off his face before regaining his focus and continuing on, "Leon's going to be staying with us for a few days, then he'll head back out to continue his search for the escaped prisoner."

"Sephiroth, right?" You said, and he nodded, getting a distracted look on his face as he stroked his beard.

"Yes, Sephiroth." He sighed, "Tell me, how much do you know about him?"

"Well, we learned a little about his revolt against ShinRa in school, but I don't really know anything about him other than that." You gave an honest shrug.

"The reason I asked Leon to keep me informed if anything should happen with his imprisonment was because Lulu had mentioned Sephiroth also shares the same brand of Geostigma as you do." He said, and your eyes went wide as you suddenly remembered overhearing their conversation. They believed Sephiroth turned on ShinRa because of the Mako experiments, and that he was trying to hunt down his son—who also had the stigma—for some reason. You had been pretty distracted that night by the revelation that you had Geostigma, so you couldn't quite remember all the details of what you overheard.

"She said that he was hunting his sons...you don't...you don't think he'll come after me now, too? Right?" You had to pace yourself as you spoke while your thoughts buzzed around at a mile a minute inside your head.

"So you heard all that, did you?" He mumbled, continuing to stroke his beard while he thought until he saw your expression. All looks of contemplation and worry melted away into a warm smile, "Don't worry, love. No one knows about you. Sephiroth has no way of knowing who you are or where you are, and I intend to keep it that way. I've kept his own wife and one of his sons from him for nearly 16 years. There's nothing for you to worry about. Besides, there's nothing to say he is only after people with the stigma. He's never targeted Ven or Caius."

"He hasn't been free to try, though." You countered, but he just gave you a smile and gave your hair a good messing up before standing up.

"He's still not free to try, don't you worry. This world is protected. You are protected." He said, using a tone that made you almost believe him, "This is what I do, Sausage. No one will lay a finger on you while I'm around."

You wanted to point out to him that you would be leaving home, leaving Traverse Town, and leaving his protection soon to go to Spira, but you also felt like you didn't want to open that can of worms with him. It was probably better to hold him to his word and just try not to think about it too much. You already spent enough time worrying about yourself, so you decided to drop it and instead shot him a questioning look, "Sausage? Not calling me 'Muffin' anymore?"

"Muffin is your mother's thing. I thought I'd try to come up with my own." He gave a light shrug, but the smile on his face told you how proud he really was to have come up with that.

"All the nicknames in the world, and you come up with Sausage? You two were made for each other." You shook your head at him as he laughed and said goodnight before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.

Now that you were alone again, you found yourself staring at your phone and wondering if you should call Ven and Lulu to see what was going on with them in Midgar and tell them about Sephiroth. Everything about them taking off so suddenly still felt very weird and uncomfortable, to the point where you were honestly really struggling to force yourself to pick up the phone. The thought of what they might have to say to you was starting to make you feel anxious. It certainly felt like Ven took off to get away from you, so calling him would just ruin the distance he was trying to put between you.

You got up, deciding not to try and contact them if it was just going to make you feel like a nervous ball of anxiety, and instead thought you might take your empty mug downstairs and watch TV or something until you got sleepy.

Once you were down in the kitchen, you saw no one had done the dishes after dinner and thought you might just get everything in the dishwasher since you had nothing else to do. You were humming to one of Roxas' favorite songs that always got stuck in your head, when someone dropped a dish in the sink from behind you while you were sorting silverware. You jumped at the sudden clatter, then turned to yell at who you presumed to be Cloud for not doing his own damn dishes, only to come face to baby-smooth-face with Leon. You actually gasped and dropped the spoon you were holding.

'Oh my god, your face!" You stammered. Of course, you realized this was rude as hell, but you were just so surprised. Where a beard so thick and unruly a bird could probably have been living in there once sat was now just his face.

"What's wrong with my face?" He asked, his expression not really changing from neutral more than a fraction of a lip curl's worth of worry that he might have accidentally shaved off his nose.

"It's a completely different face!" You tried to explain your shock from his sudden transformation from Viking to regular dude. He still had the heavy scar on his nose and longish hair that was still damp from his shower, but if you had to pick him out of a lineup of guys you wouldn't be able to.

"Someone's dramatic." He replied coolly.

"Not as dramatic as transforming from the guy in Outcast into a school boy." You shot back and he rubbed his cheek with a shrug.

"It's not that different."

"I thought you were 35 years old and had been missing in the woods for six months at dinner."

"It was one hell of a beard, wasn't it?" He sounded almost like he missed it as he continued to feel his cheek absently with his fingers like it was a completely foreign sensation, "Still. Not very fitting for a SeeD officer."

"It is if you're going undercover as a yeti."

"I bet you and Cloud get along just fine, don't you? You're certainly cut from the same snarky cloth." He grumbled, shooting you a quick glaring look before turning to leave the kitchen.

"Hey, wait...you've seen Sephiroth in person, right? What's he like?" You asked, trying your best to hide how anxious the whole situation was making you after your talk with Basch. He stopped and gave a little shrug.

"I'm just a cadet, so I've never actually had eyes on the guy personally, but I hear talk around the barracks sometimes. He's got those SOLDIER eyes that can look right through you, and this chilling calm about him. Like he was locked up but could go whenever he wanted. I used to think it was all bullshit but apparently not, considering how easily he got away from us. No need to worry though. We'll catch him soon enough, and this time we'll throw away the key."

"If you say so." You nodded, then returned your attention to the dishwasher. "Might have been more convincing from the man with the beard, but I guess I'll just have to take your word for it."

"I'm starting to wish I kept the beard. I got a lot less sass with it." He sighed then left the room for good this time, leaving you to finish up the dishes.

After you finished, you return to staring at your phone in your room, wondering if you should call Ven. You just couldn't bring yourself to dial those numbers, though. You decided that if he wasn't going to call you and explain himself a little better, then you just weren't going to talk. So you were just left sitting in bed feeling anxious about Sephiroth, depressed about Ven and Lulu, and annoyed by stigma pains. It was the perfect time to start journaling to try and figure out how you were feeling, but you eventually just started writing in circles about your own emotions. It was becoming less therapeutic and more irritating by the minute, until Aqua came over to help you get to sleep.

∞

The next day in school, it became painfully clear that this week was going to be completely different and more relaxed than anything you were used to with the school trip coming up so quickly. Poetry became more like a class wide read-along, and without Lulu, magic training became a hundred times easier under Aqua. Chemistry and math were about the only classes still trying to make you work and do homework, though in history you were given a long sixteen-page worksheet with questions about Spira. You were supposed to get in a group and work on it throughout the week, so you made sure to run as far away from the juniors you usually sat with so you didn't have to do all the work for them, and instead joined the group of your friends from your grade that were also in the class. The only interesting part of the day was health class, where you weren't sent to your usual classroom with all the girls, but instead were sent to the gym with the boys and told to sit down and wait for instructions. You sat next to Roxas like you normally did whenever the health classes were brought into the gym, so when you were asked to partner up with a member of the opposite sex it made the partner search easy.

"Any idea what this is about?" You asked casually as people still scrambled around you to find someone to work with while the health and gym teachers brought in heavy looking boxes.

"Not a clue." He shrugged, watching with about as much mild curiosity as you were. You didn't really care what you were doing as long as it wasn't classwork.

The two of you continued to chat as people around you got partnered up and the teacher began to walk around to all the groups. You were sitting near the back and not paying any attention at all until suddenly a bag of flour was dropped into your lap

"Congratulations on the new baby, Mr. and Mrs. Rostar. Return the flour in pristine condition on Friday for a passing grade." The teacher said before moving on to the pair to your right.

"Oh, goddamn it." You grumbled under your breath, looking at the flour with a bright blue #17 written in marker on it. There was even a little speaker on its back that you were certain would start crying at some point. "Oh g _oddamn_  it." You repeated with even more displeasure after realizing this was the dreaded caretaking challenge Cloud warned you about in passing conversation when talking about all the shitty things that teachers would make you do in the week before the trip. It was something like they were testing if you could really be trusted to take care of your teammates when you were out there in Spira all alone.

"Why do they just assume we're married now?" Roxas asked, taking the flour baby and tossing it around between his hands.

"Why do they just assume I'd take your name?" You added, watching with zero concern as he continued to toss the sack from hand to hand.

"You wouldn't?" He gave you a look, catching the flour bag and setting it on the gym floor to rest against his knee.

"Hey, you could always take my name. Wouldn't that be modern?"

"I have kind of always wanted to be a Strife." He shrugged.

"You and Zack both. What's with you guys?" You rolled your eyes, and as Roxas made to reply the flour baby rolled forward off his knee and onto its 'face.' Both of you just watched it fall, and then neither of you made a move to sit it upright again. You were content to just sit there and watch the flour lay on the ground until suddenly it started whaling. You both jumped forward to grab it, and Roxas got there first. He scooped it up and pressed it into his chest and shoulder like one might do with a real baby.

"Oh, this'll be fun." He sighed, already exhausted with this project.

"Two minutes in, and you drop our baby on its face." You shook your head in disbelief.

"How is this my fault?" He rolled his eyes as he began to pat the flour on the 'back' to try and make the crying stop.

"It's  _always_   _your_ fault." You shot back.

"I want a divorce."

"You get full custody of junior there." You said, watching wearily as he tried to calm the screaming flour.

"Oh my god, I'm stuck with both of you, aren't I?" He said dismally,

"It's just a couple of days right? You'll be fine." You shrugged.

"Being stuck with you for an hour is more than enough to drive any guy insane."

"Whatever," You flicked your hair off your shoulder dramatically and jokingly said in a suave tone, "Just don't fall in love with me."

"Ha, no worries there." He rolled his eyes and you both had a good laugh until the flour began crying again when he stopped rocking it. "What should we name him?"

"Him?" You scoffed.

"The writing is in blue." He shrugged, referring to the blue 17 on it.

"Don't impose your gender stereotypes on my baby."

"Oh,  _your_ baby?" He scoffed and rolled his eyes.

"Little baby All-Purpose." You said, reading the label "All Purpose Flour" on the flour baby.

"Little baby Purp." He laughed, and you joined him.

"We can't name him that." You insisted, and he continued to laugh even harder.

"You don't like Purp?"

The rest of the class was spent whispering about possible names for your flour baby while the teacher went on explaining the rules and goals of this experiment, and then the flour babies were collected again at the end of class so you could go about your school day without worrying about the baby. Since neither of you had anything going on after school but going to watch blitz practice, you were both free to go pick up little baby Purp before heading to the gym to do homework and watch blitz practice.

You got through a few pages of the history worksheet during practice, but there was still long way to go on it. You decided to head to the public library in town with Xion and Roxas to keep working on it. Riku joined you after practice let out and he had dried off and changed out of his blitz clothes. It would have been one thing if you just had to do a long and tedious worksheet, but now you had to take care of a crying sack of flour every couple of minutes. Needless to say, you and Roxas were not handling the strain of parenthood very well.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, it's your turn." Roxas grumbled as Purp started crying again where he sat on the library table between the two of you. You couldn't agree on a proper name, so you were stuck with Purp.

"No, I just put him down for his nap." You grumped, getting really, painfully sick of the electronic crying sound.

"And I just gave him tummy pats to make him stop five minutes ago." He shot back, and you put your pencil down so you could give glaring at him your full attention.

"Maybe your pats woke him up."

"Would you assholes just take care of your baby?" Riku groaned from across the table. He was sitting directly across from you, and had his own flour baby sitting in his lap. His hair was still wet from blitz practice, but he was using the towel that had been around his shoulders to muffle the cries of his baby instead. Seemed like a better use of the towel in his eyes.

"Like you're taking care of yours?" Roxas raised an irritated brow, looking at Riku's towel method scornfully. Everyone was getting a little short on patience with all the constant interruptions of babies crying.

"At least ours isn't screaming in a quiet zone." Xion came to Riku's defense, since it was technically her baby too.

"It's a sack of flour. It doesn't know it's in a quiet zone." You glared.

"Ours does." Xion said.

"Yours is just muted." Roxas rolled his eyes.

"One of you, for fucks sake, shut that thing up." Riku insisted, and you sighed and grabbed the flour sack with the intent to start rocking it. Instead, the moment you put a hand on it, electricity sparked from your fingertips and hit the flour sack. There was a strange mechanical whine, then the crying became more and more distorted until it finally fell quiet. The four of you stared down at the flour baby, all in shock.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, sweetheart, did you just murder our baby?" Roxas finally asked after a moment of staring at the now eerily silent flour sack.

"Ohmygod, I didn't mean to kill it." Riku rolled his eyes so hard he had to hold a hand over his face to regroup afterwards.

"Aww, Purp..." Xion mumbled.

"Ah, shit." You sighed.

"Are we gonna need to talk about the fact you chose to murder our child rather than just give it a little pat, or should I just get the divorce papers?"

"Oh come on, you know I didn't mean to..." You grabbed the sack of flour and shook it a little, trying to bring some life back into it.

"Don't go giving it shaken baby syndrome now, too." Xion sighed at you, and you began hitting it on the back where the electric speaker was, "≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, you're the  _worst_."

"It's not a baby, it's a sack of flour." You argued.

"A dead sack of flour." Riku mumbled, and you shot him a look.

"It's just shorted out." You said, setting the flour sack back on the table, "I bet Gippal can fix it."

"Really? You think so?" Roxas asked, now giving little Purp an examination of his own. The only problem was the speaker fried. Other than that, it was still the same...only quieter...which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"Yeah, easy peasy. Should I call him?"

Roxas looked at you as you began to get your phone out, then at the quiet flour sack. As if on cue, Riku and Xion's baby started acting up from under the towel. "What if we waited to fix it until the last day of this experiment??"

"That's brilliant." You laughed, realizing he was implying you leave Purp dead until the last minute so he didn't bother you throughout the week.

 _"Ohmygod!_ " Riku glared daggers at both of you, "You're not just going to loophole your way out of this assignment."

"Oh, we most certainly are." Roxas crossed his arms and sat back in his chair, watching smugly as Riku passed their crying flour baby off to Xion.

"I was wrong. You guys are  _both_  the worst." Xion shook her head as she tried desperately to make her flour stop crying by bouncing it on her knee.

"Want me to kill yours too?" You grinned, drumming your fingers on the table maliciously.

"I mean..." Riku began, watching Xion out of the corner of his eye.

"Riku! No!" She snapped at him, and he rolled his eyes.

"We're already smothering it in towels to keep it from crying."

"We are  _not_  killing it!" She insisted.

"Well, you two have fun with that. We're gonna get this history packet knocked out." Roxas said, and he held out his fist for you.

"Parents of the year." You said, fist bumping Roxas while maintaining eye contact with Riku to really rub it in as Roxas made explosion sounds with his mouth when your fists met.

"Assholes." He mumbled under his breath while his flour baby continued wailing.

"What did you get for number 32, 'indigenous flower of the Moonflow?'" Roxas asked you, ignoring Riku and Xion as they struggled to get their flour baby under control.

"Moonlily. And 33 is hypello." You said, looking back at your answers. Each page of the history packet had questions based on a particular region of Spira, and between listening to Gippal and Rikku talk about their home-world and all of the lectures during class on Spira, it was actually pretty easy. Tedious, but easy.

"You guys are on 33 already?" Xion sighed heavily, looking down at her worksheet for the first time in probably fifteen minutes.

"Murder your baby. It does wonders for your ability to pay attention to homework." Roxas suggested, and she and Riku both rolled their eyes in disapproval.

You and Roxas worked your way to the bottom of the page, then decided to take a break until everyone else at the table caught up.

"Heard anything from Ven?" Roxas asked you once a silence fell over your corner of the table.

"Nope. You?"

"Nope." He shrugged, "And my parents still don't know where he is. Just that he isn't here."

"He's in Midgar. I at least know that much." You sighed, twirling your pencil over your fingers absently, before you messed up and it went rolling across the table to Riku.

"Damn it, why'd you tell me? You know I'm not a good liar." Roxas groaned melodramatically, thinking now if his father asked him if he knew anything he couldn't just say no.

"Who's in Midgar?" Riku asked, picking up your pencil and leaning across the table to hand it back to you.

"Ven." You replied, taking your pencil from him and sitting back in your chair boredly.

"Wait, he's gone?" He gave you a very specific look of thinly veiled concern, "Is that okay?"

"It's fine." You gave a half-hearted shrug.

"But...why?" He pressed, and you and Roxas exchanged a look. You were getting a little sick of having this conversation with each person who knew about your stigma.

"How should she know? She's not his mother...thank god." Xion said, shooting Purp a wary look.

"Shut up, Xion." Roxas sneered.

"Research stuff with Lulu, I guess." You ignored the two of them completely, finding them way less distracting than Riku's locked gaze on you.

"Lulu is gone too?" He was getting himself worked up, and there were a lot of people around who wouldn't understand the context, so you cut the conversation.

"Hey Xion, do you want to be in Roxas' band?"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈!" Roxas smacked you on the arm.

"What? I overheard you and Axel talking about it. You play drums, right?"

"I...yeah, I do. You started a band?" She looked at him like she was mad she was only just now hearing about it.

"Not really." Roxas glared at you while talking to her, "I mean, I guess, but we really are only talking about it now."

"With Axel and Demyx." You added, and he glared at you even harder.

"What are you, my manager?"

You thought for a moment, then said definitively, "Yes."

"Reno will be pissed." Riku said, though it was clear by the way he was looking at you that he was still very hung up on the previous conversation.

"Do you really want me to join?" Xion asked Roxas, and he gave a sheepish shrug.

"Yeah, I mean, if you want to, we'd be happy to have you."

"What are you guys called?"

"Chocobutts."

"Cover Bands R Us." You and Riku both quickly replied for him and he flushed, though whether it was embarrassment or irritation, you weren't sure.

"We don't have a name yet." He answered her, "But if you joined us we were thinking maybe 4X...you know, because there will be four of us, and we all have X's in our names."

"Four X, like XXXX?" Riku scoffed, "Sounds like a porno band."

"Or is it Quadruple X?" You offered, and Roxas sighed.

"No, just 4X. Like four-X."

You and Riku exchanged a quick glance before both saying, "Forks." in unison.

"4X." Roxas corrected, so you said it again.

"Forks."

"Four...X." He gritted his teeth and stared you down.

"Four...ks." You argued, and Riku backed you up.

"It sounds more than a little like forks, Rox."

"Shut up, jerks," Xion tried to hush you and Riku up so she could actually talk band stuff, "Do you guys have any songs yet?"

"Well...we mostly do covers...it's still early days."

"Ha, told you." Riku smirked, thinking back to his previous comment about their band name.

You began snickering as new band names came to you, "Rox 'n' Roll."

"But I have written a few songs."

"You have?" Riku and Xion both asked, while you continued leaning back in your chair and laughing at your own joke before coming up with another one.

"Guns 'n' Roxas."

"Only a few. One of them's about ≈≈≈≈≈≈." He said to you, kicking a foot under one of your raised front chair legs and tipping you back just enough that the armrests of your chair hit the bottom of the table, so you got all the scare of falling but were actually stuck in place by the table.

"Well, that's flattering." You said, trying to compose yourself after that mini-heart attack he gave you by kicking your chair.

"Being in a band is turning you into a regular Casanova already." Riku rolled his eyes.

"What's it called?" Xion asked, laughing.

"Bitch in a Uniform." Roxas said simply, and the other two snorted in laughter.

"Less flattering, but still." You shrugged it off, fixing the tie of your school uniform where it sat snugly around your neck.

"You're flattered by  _that_?" Riku scoffed.

"I mean, not really, but it's the thought that counts." You said, getting distracted by the ends of your hair after seeing it while fixing your tie. It looked a little tangly to you, so you began combing it out with your fingers.

"Everybody loves a musician, Riku." Xion said.

Riku scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Why?"

"It's okay Xion, we just won't ever invite him to our gigs or inevitably awesome after-parties." Roxas shrugged.

"Oh no!" Riku said mockingly, shooting Roxas a look of 'I couldn't possibly care less.' "You got a back up plan for when this all falls flat on its ass? Staying in school, I hope?"

"He's a mighty fine ice cream scooper. Good enough to go pro." You said, finishing combing out your hair with your fingers, then taking the stray strand that fell out and stuck to your hand and shaking it off over top of Roxas' homework paper knowing it would annoy him.

"You're an animal, you know that?" He eyed you, sweeping an irritated hand over top of his paper to get rid of the long strand of hair. "Hey, if everything goes south, we'll just make money selling ≈≈≈≈≈≈'s hair. Become wig makers."

"We'd have better luck selling Riku's. Softer and shinier." Xion snickered, and Riku scoffed.

"That's just not true."

"Oh, no, it is." You said, "It's not a self-esteem thing. It's just a fact. My hair will  _never_  be as prettyas yours."

"What the hell is wrong with you two?" Riku asked, looking at you and Xion with the faintest trace of a blush rising in his cheeks.

"The girls sit around the locker room and chat about your hair all the time. It's a real source of jealousy for us." Xion explained.

"What about my hair?" Roxas asked, looking deflated.

"What  _about_  your hair?" Xion shot back, and he sighed.

"You guys are joking right?" Riku asked you, and you rolled your eyes.

"What do you think?" You asked, laughing to yourself as Xion reached over slowly to try and sneak a feel of the back of his head. As soon as her fingers touched him, he jumped and swatted her hand away before blushing even harder.

"You're both crazy."

"What's wrong, Riku? I thought you liked being the center of attention." Roxas said, smirking. This was one of the rare times when Riku was the one who looked uncool and not him.

"Not their attention. They're evil." He mumbled sheepishly.

"As much fun as I'm having torturing Riku, we're getting mighty off topic here," Xion said, trying to return everyone's attention to the history worksheet. All of you took a look back down at the homework assignment and heaved a collective sigh. The break from working was nice while it lasted, you thought, but she was probably right about needing to get back to work.

"Hey, why don't we try and get more people down here? The more people working on it, the better." Roxas suggested.

"Yeah, then we can just assign one person per page then share answers and get this shit done with early." Riku said, twirling his pencil over his fingers expertly, causing you to glare enviously. He caught your look and his smirk got even wider.

"You're the most goddamn lazy person I've ever met." Xion said, and he shrugged.

"I hide it well."

"Do you?" Roxas raised an eyebrow, thinking anyone who actually spent an afternoon with Riku would have noticed his ability to weasel out of just about anything involving real work. At least when it came to school stuff.

"Fuck off.." He replied, making Roxas grit his teeth and glare at him.

While they had been chatting, you pulled out your phone and started texting people from your grade and asking them to come to the library.

After maybe fifteen minutes of sitting around doing nothing but talking, Olette and Naminé showed up and pulled a seat up to your table. They arrived just in time for Riku and Xion's flour baby to start acting up.

"Xion should take care of it, she's the girl." Riku was saying as they settled in.

 _"Wow_." You drawled sarcastically.

"I don't want to hear any criticism from you, baby killer." Riku shot you a look.

"I do  _not_  like what this assignment is revealing about our gender role ideals." Xion huffed, taking the flour baby and rocking it even though Riku was being an ass. The crying was annoying enough that she didn't care it was his turn.

"Oh,  _you_  don't like it? ≈≈≈≈≈≈ tried to get me to take her last name." Roxas rolled his eyes.

"Hey, they tried to push Rostar on me to begin with. Why do they have to assume in order for this experiment to work we needed to be married?"

"Well, you're not married, and your experiment didn't work." Riku said, and Xion quickly added "R.I.P Purp" in a hushed whisper that was just loud enough for you to hear.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, you killed your baby?" Naminé shot you an exasperated look, trying to catch herself up on everything that was going on.

"Not on purpose!" You sighed, just as exasperated to have it brought up again.

"Why did we have to work with boys anyway? I mean it's not like we're going to be in neat little boy-girl-boy-girl groups on the trip anyway, and that's what all this is for." Xion continued subtly complaining about being stuck with Riku for a parenting partner.

"Because, if we left the boys alone with this experiment, the babies would all die of neglect." You said, watching Riku continue to give no shits about the glares Xion was shooting him.

"Says the only one here who murdered—" Roxas began, but you cut him off.

"Roxy, you're supposed to be on my side."

"I'm on Purp's side."

"What exactly happened here?" Olette asked, and everyone shot you a look.

"Who's to say?" You answered simply.

"I bet it was Roxas' fault." Naminé added, and Roxas gave her a surprised look.

"Seriously?"

"Oh, it totally was." You nodded, adding "If I could have worked with a girl it never would have happened."

"Bullshit." Riku mumbled, "You're a walking disaster."

"Hey, I resent that." You raised an eyebrow at him.

"Resent away, doesn't make it any less true.

"Whatever...hey, where's your baby?" You asked Olette, noticing that Naminé had her flour baby but Olette didn't.

"Sora is taking him tonight." She shrugged.

"Ha, now there's your walking disaster." Roxas snickered, only to get whacked on the back of the head by Sora, who just walked up.

"Oh thanks." He said sarcastically, walking around from behind you and Roxas and pulling up a chair at the short edge of the table, putting him between you and Riku. You began laughing as you saw Sora had tied his gray TTA sweater around his neck and shoulder and made it into a makeshift baby holding shawl.

"What are you doing?" Riku asked, also noticing his baby sling.

"It's called parenting. Look it up." Sora replied smugly, seeing Xion was still struggling with getting their flour baby under control.

"You're doing great work, Sora. Keep it up." Olette said supportively, and he beamed at her.

"So you two just decided to take it in day long shifts?" Xion asked her.

"Yeah, I mean, there's no real reason to pretend to be a couple and work together, you know? It's just a sack of flour." She said, and Sora nodded.

"Besides, it's not that hard." He added, shrugging and giving the flour baby sitting in his sweater a pat, "Look, even Roxas and ≈≈≈≈≈≈ are better at it than you." He taunted Riku, seeing Purp sitting still and quiet on the table between you and Roxas.

"That's because theirs is dead." Riku shot back.

"What?" Sora looked at you and Roxas, then at your flour baby with newfound horror.

"Funny story that." You began, then quickly changed the subject, "But you know what's more interesting? This Spira worksheet."

"No, it isn't." Sora shook his head at you, but decided not to press the subject, "What page are you guys on?" And with that, everyone finally started to get to work. More people began to show up in the next couple of minutes, like Pence and Hayner, Yuna, Rikku, Tidus, and Wakka, and eventually the group had to split into multiple tables. It was lucky there really weren't any other people around the library in the common area, otherwise there would have been multiple noise complaints. Especially when Selphie got there and started taking pictures of everyone hanging out and studying for yearbook club and her blog. It was hard to concentrate until everyone got there and started to settle down, but finally you got back to work.

"Oh, weird. There's apparently no same sex marriage allowed on Spira except within Al Bhed culture." Riku said, as he read a passage from a book describing culture and laws in Spira.

"Huh. You don't really see conservative worlds like that anymore." Roxas said, zoning out as he looked over a passage about crime and punishment.

"Gippal says most of Spira is run by hyper-religious lunatics, I'm not surprised." You added, and Xion and Olette exchanged a look and communicated something silently with their expressions that the rest of you missed.

"That's weird," Xion began casually, "Hey ≈≈≈≈≈≈, did Midgar have any laws about that kind of thing?" As she finished Olette elbowed her hard in the arm, but you were too busy finishing up the last sentence in the book before answering her to notice.

"No, not really. It's been completely legal for years now. And even if it wasn't, popular opinion has always been love is love."

"I like that. No need to put a gay or straight label on anything, just, if it feels right, it feels right, you know?" Xion said, and you nodded.

"I think it's a little more complicated than that." Naminé said.

"As long as two people love each other, nothing else really matters. Nothing complicated about it if you ask me." Sora said confidently.

"Which no one did." Roxas commented, and Sora glared at him and made to say something back, but Xion got there first.

"Shut up, Roxas. Sora is right."

"Would you ever date a girl?" Roxas asked her, and she shrugged.

"I dunno. I don't see why not. Girls are pretty and they smell nice, that's more than you can say about most guys. What about you Rox, would you ever date a guy?"

"Nah. Like you said, girls are pretty and they smell nice. Good enough for me." Roxas shrugged. "Riku?"

"I mean, never say never, but probably not. It's just not something that's ever interested me in the past, and I don't really see that suddenly changing. " He also gave a light shrug, and Sora laughed.

"Nothing interests you. It's like your fundamental character trait is to be totally unimpressed by anything going on around you."

"Maybe that speaks more to your general un-impressiveness than it does me." Riku gave him some side eye and you cracked up.

"Ouch." You said, giving Sora a sympathetic look.

"What about you, ≈≈≈≈≈≈? Think you'd ever date another girl?" Roxas asked casually enough, but then you suddenly felt everyone's eyes on you. You bit your lip and thought for a second, trying to be as honest as possible without sounding like a dumbass with everyone watching.

"It's more like...it's not really about that for me. I guess it's more important to me that someone is a good person and worth pursuing rather than just a boy or a girl. There's so many other qualities a person has that I'm more interested in than gender."

"So it's all about the other person being good enough? No love at first sight for you?" Selphie asked, surprising you since you hadn't seen her make her way over and sit down at the other end of your table by Naminé and Olette. The group that was sitting at the other table had decided to call it a day and they were all leaving.

"Guess not. If someone's not worth it, they're not worth it. You can't always tell that from a look." You shrugged.

"So jaded." She laughed and rolled her eyes at you like you were some alien whose ideas were utter nonsense to her.

"It's good that you can believe in that kind of thing, but I just don't buy it. People are too complex to make that kind of decision about them based on a single glance. Love is such a deep, complicated emotion and it's so meaningful, I don't get how some people can trivialize it." You explained, thinking it might seem a little jaded to her, but to you it was better to be jaded than to make the kind of mistake your mother made with your biological father.

"So, you see a really cute guy—or girl—at the mall, you just look the other way until they pass some kind of character test?" She shot back, not sounding confrontational, but like she was enjoying the conversation and just wanted to understand.

Riku stepped in to answer for you, "That's not what she's saying. You can applicate that someone is attractive without being in love with them. Love at first sight is just a recipe for spending years together with someone, then suddenly waking up and realizing they're a complete stranger to you. If you want a fling, call it that. If you're after love, put some work in."

"Don't you think that's asking kind of a lot from someone else? Making them prove they're worth it for you? What makes you so worth it?" Sora asked, adding, "Sometimes you just gotta take a chance on someone and hope for the best," before stealing a grape from the snack bag sitting in front of Riku and plopping it into his mouth.

"I disagree." You said, just as Riku said, "That's stupid."

"Well, aren't you two just perfect for each other?" Selphie smirked, and you and Riku both rolled your eyes. "Wait, is  _this_ why you keep turning Zack down? Not sure he's worth it?"

"Don't drag Zack into this." You warned, but she kept going.

"I guess I get not being sure about Zack, since he's a bit of a wild card, but then what about Genesis? If anyone's worth it, it's gotta be him, right?" She asked, looking at Naminé and Xion for nods of agreement, which Naminé gave her and Xion shrugged and agreed. Riku and Roxas exchanged a disgruntled look, and Sora just took another grape and looked at you for your reaction to all this.

"He's probably around here somewhere, could you not?" You asked, looking around the room for Genesis to make sure he hadn't overheard that. This was his father's library and his favorite place to hang out after school, after all. "And Zack isn't a wild card, he just has ADHD."

"Seriously?" Roxas piped up, chuckling a little.

"I mean...that's the popular theory, anyway." You shrugged, thinking back to a conversation you had with Tifa and Yuffie about him a couple of days ago where you came to the conclusion all his restless energy, inability to focus on certain things, and impulsivity were pretty much textbook ADHD symptoms. Lulu even commented on him having it once, though it was hard to tell if it was her usual callous sense of humor or if she was being serious about her nephew.

"Even so, I'm just saying if he ever even talked to me, I'd—" Selphie began, clearly not wanting to drop the subject, so you cut her off.

"Spira's capital city, Bevelle, has a population of 20,000 people. That's the answers for number 83 and 84." You read aloud from a book, cutting her off and killing the conversation once and for all before writing the answer down on your worksheet.

"Boo." Selphie huffed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes so she could glare at you properly.

"Bevelle. 20,000." You said again, and she sighed and looked down at her worksheet and got to writing it down. Olette and Xion were chatting away quietly as they had been for several minutes now, and Naminé was back to sketching some drawing or another on the top corner of her worksheet. Riku and Roxas began throwing grapes across the table for one another to catch in their mouths while Sora kept score of who caught more.

"Wow. Sure looks like you guys are having fun." Kairi said, walking up to the table and stopping behind Sora's chair at the head of the table.

"Kairi! You're late, I was wondering where you were." Selphie said excitedly, happy to see her best friend finally turn up. Kairi didn't return her smile though.

"I'm not late. I wasn't invited." She said, shooting you a look that could kill.

In an instant you felt your stomach do a flip as you realized you never sent her a message inviting her to come. It was just a misunderstanding, but she seemed so angry with you for some reason. Your eyes went wide and you began stuttering out some kind of stunned reply, "H-how did...you even..."

Selphie gasped and put her hands over her mouth, realizing Kairi found out about the study hang out from seeing the Instagram photo she posted of everyone having fun in the library, captioned '≈≈≈≈≈≈ always has the best ideas.'

"Does it matter?" Kairi rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, continuing to give you a venomous stare.

"I'm so sorry, I really didn't—I didn't mean to..." You felt so confronted so suddenly that you were frankly having trouble forming complete sentences. One second everything was totally fine, then next you had a pit the size of the moon in your stomach from the realization that you completely unintentionally hurt and excluded the one person in your friend group who was already having trouble not feeling hurt and excluded all the time.

"Save it." Her eyes were watering, but she was doing her damnedest not to let tears fall. You knew that feeling. You knew it intimately. "These are my friends." Her voice shook as she spoke, "You can try to steal them, try to cut me out, but you will  _never_ —"

"Kairi, chill." Roxas jumped to your defense and cut her off, forcing her to look away from you for the first time since she walked in. You stared down at the table where your phone was, in complete disbelief that you did something so careless and, from her perspective, mean, without so much as a thought. Would it have been worse if you intentionally didn't invite her? Or was it worse that you did it all so unthinkingly, like when you thought of friends to invite she didn't even come to your mind for a second. It was hard to tell what would be worse, but easy to see why she was so upset regardless.

"Shut up, Roxas." She snapped reflexively, like everyone always did, but this time he didn't just brush it off.

"Hey, only my friends get to say that to me." He glared right back at her.

Her hard expression broke for a moment at his words, realizing he was saying they weren't friends anymore, then it hardened again as she returned her glare to you, "You're turning them against me? They were my friends first. Get your own."

"Kairi, I'm sorry, I didn't—" You tried, but she wasn't having any of it.

"They only like you because they're trying to replace me. I know I haven't been myself lately, but you are a sad, sorry replacement at best. One day they're gonna see that, and—"

"That's enough. She didn't invite you because I asked her not to." Riku lied, his tone so cold and convincing you almost believed him yourself. "I knew you were either going to strut around here acting pathetic or be a total bitch like always the whole afternoon, so I thought it would be better if you just didn't come at all. Now look at you...a pathetic bitch. Who would have thought you could sink lower?"

"Riku! That's crossing the line." Naminé scolded.

"She crossed it first." He retorted, crossing his arms and giving Kairi a sharp look so she would stop glaring at you and focus on him.

"Fuck you, asshole." She snarled back at him, tears falling from her eyes and a sob escaping her before she turned on her heel and ran out of the library.

"Oh great. Nice going, Riku." Selphie sighed, getting to her feet and going after Kairi.

"I'm not apologizing." Riku said as she passed him on her way after Kairi.

"Didn't expect you to." She shook her head at him.

"I know she was...in a mood...but you don't have to be so mean. I'm sorry ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. I know she didn't mean it." Naminé said, getting to her feet as well and going after Kairi.

"In a mood?" Roxas scoffed as they left.

"She says all that shit to ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, and I'm the mean one?" Riku rolled his eyes.

"Yeah." Xion shrugged, "Something about that 'I'm gonna murder you and make it look like an accident' voice you have."

"You okay, ≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Sora asked you as Riku and Xion went on.

"What the hell just happened?" You asked no one in particular.

"Oh, I forgot. You've never had front row seats to the Kairi meltdown show before." Xion mumbled, "Don't worry, it blows over as quickly as it comes most of the time."

"I didn't mean to do that." You pointed absently towards the door she went storming out of.

"Yeah, what exactly happened here?" Roxas asked, knowing full well that Riku never asked you not to invite her.

"I literally just forgot to invite her. She never texts me, so her name didn't show up in my recents when I sent out the text asking people to come down here. I had no idea she would—"

"It's alright, it's what she does. We know you didn't mean it." Sora put a hand on your shoulder and gave you a sympathetic squeeze.

"I'm so sorry, everyone. Riku, why did you do that? You two were just started to patch things up." 

"Was I supposed to let her keep attacking you like that?" He shrugged. It honestly seemed like he was more upset Naminé called him mean than he was about the whole showdown with Kairi...which was saying something, since it really didn't seem like he was bothered by that much either.

"I don't know, but you didn't have to throw a toaster in the bathtub of your very frail relationship for me."

"Why not? You seem to care if she's mad at you a hell of a lot more than I do. I was happy to do it."

"Thank you." You sighed. It was sweet of him, in his own way, to do something like that, but you still felt horrible about the whole thing, "I should probably find her though, tell her the truth."

"No."

"What? No!"

"Are you crazy?"

It seemed like everyone had something to say to try and stop you from getting up, Sora even putting a hand on the back of your chair so you couldn't scoot it out and stand up.

"Damage is done, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. Just let it go." Roxas said.

"And let Riku take all the blame? He's not the asshole here, I am."

"You heard him, he's happy to do it. You should just let him. Everyone knows Riku's a teeny-tiny baby bit problematic sometimes. Better to just roll with it." Sora shrugged.

"I know it's shitty, but think about it: If it were you, would you rather be hurt by an ex-boyfriend who you already know hates your guts, or by some airhead forgetting about you but remembering all your other friends who seem to like her better than you anyway?" Xion asked, and you sighed.

"How could I just forget her? Am I an idiot, or seriously just an asshole?"

"Neither. You're wrapped up in your own stuff, just like she is in hers. The two of you don't really connect, so she didn't come to mind when you were thinking of friends to invite." Sora said, and you bit your cheek and nodded. It was honestly what happened pretty much, but it still made you feel like an asshole. You found yourself suddenly deeply missing Ven being around. Sora seemed to have the same instinct as Ven did to try and cheer you up and talk you down, and it reminded you of him in an almost painful kind of way.

"I'm just...really sorry, guys. I think I'm gonna go home." You decided, gathering all your papers and pencils and putting them in your bag in preparation to leave.

"You sure?" Xion asked, and you sighed.

"Yeah, it's fine. I'm tired and done working anyway. You alright taking Purp home?" You asked Roxas, who gave the flour sack a double pat on the back just to make double sure it was still dead.

"Yup. I'll take it from here." He said, and you nodded appreciatively at him.

"Thanks Rox. See you later, guys." You said, taking the library's history book you had been using to answer the worksheet questions and tucking it under your arms before heading back to the shelf you got it from. While you were trying to find the right place to put it back, Genesis spotted you from the reading nook he was sitting in by the window.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, are you and your friends leaving now?" He asked, getting to his feet and walking over to help you.

"Oh, hey Genny. I'm going, but I don't know about them." You shrugged, using a finger to track the numbers on the spine of the library books to find where the history book rightfully went.

"That's too bad. I didn't realize you were here until just now." He said, and your reaction was a mix of a scoff and a laugh.

"Seriously? You mean you didn't hear any of that?" You gestured with your head back towards the open common area where all the work tables were.

"Any of what?" He shrugged, taking the book from you and scanning the shelf for a brief second before finding its rightful place irritatingly fast.

"Wow. Either you have singularly impressive focus, or that must be a really good book." You smiled knowingly at the small hardback novel tucked under his arm. It looked like it was maybe a sequel to that collection of short stories about SOLDIER.

He laughed, "What did I miss?"

"The wailing of flour babies, a cat fight, me being a jackass, Kairi screaming at Riku to go fuck himself. You know, the usual."

"How are you a jackass? And why is Kairi mad at Riku?" He asked, doing a poor job of hiding his amused smile.

"How long do you have?" You laughed, thinking Genesis really wasn't friends with either of them and had no idea about anything that had gone down between them.

"I have at least long enough to walk you home." He offered, and you nodded.

"Sure, if you want to." You said, adjusting the strap of your backpack where it was sitting on your shoulder before making for the front door of the library with him following right behind.

Roxas was the only one sitting at the table facing the right way to see you two walk out, but when he groaned at the sight of you with Genesis, everyone else turned to look.

Riku looked over his shoulder then also mirrored Roxas' groan of displeasure.

"What's wrong with you guys?" Xion asked, also looking over her shoulder and watching as you laughed at something Genesis said before the library doors closed and you walked out of eyeshot.

"They're jealous of Genesis." Sora smirked.

"No, I'm not." Riku scoffed while Roxas shrugged and asked, "Who isn't?" at the same time. They both shot each other a look, then Xion laughed.

"Right."

"I just think it's weird is all. We've known Genesis for how many years, and he's never tried to talk to any of us." Riku said, and Sora rolled his eyes.

"You're not a pretty girl." He said, and they both dropped their gaze to the table, like they couldn't find anything to argue with there.

"You sayin' I'm not pretty?" Xion asked, shooting all of them a dark look.

"You're pretty. Objectively." Roxas shrugged.

"Thanks..." She glared at him.

"Well...you're not ugly, I guess." Riku said.

"Maybe you're not Genesis' type?" Sora offered, and she shook her head at them all.

"Maybe he's never talked to you guys before because you're kind of dicks."

"I resent that." Sora said, and she laughed.

"Fine, maybe not you, Sora, but you two...yikes."

"Whatever. Genesis is probably a dick too. He can't be as perfect as everyone thinks he is." Riku crossed his arms and sat back in his chair.

"Wait, just to be clear, this is you not being jealous, right?" Sora snickered.

"What's there to be jealous of?"

"His cheekbones, height, jawline, broad shoulders, intellect, muscles—stop me if I'm rambling." Xion listed with a smirk, and all of them groaned.

"He's not that great." Riku insisted.

"You say, speaking as one perfect guy about another." Roxas rolled his eyes.

"I"m not perfect." Riku shot back.

"Yeah, we know. But if we're being honest, Genesis is the Juniors' perfect guy, Cloud is the Seniors', and you're ours. Lil' golden boy." Sora mocked him, reaching over to try and pinch Riku's cheek, but Riku swatted his hand away before he could try.

"So yeah, it's probably just a huge misconception we all have about Genesis, because if Riku's any example to go off of, there's a whole hidden asshole side to his personality we just don't know about." Xion laughed.

"You know what, I'm probably going to go home too." Riku deadpanned, shooting Xion a very dry look before stuffing all his stuff into his bag and getting to his feet.

"Wait, our baby! You said you'd watch it tonight!" Xion complained as he began to walk off, but he either didn't hear her or pretended not to as he exited.

"Don't worry, Xion. I got this." Sora said, grabbing her flour baby and rushing off after Riku.

Now it was just Xion and Roxas, and she crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair.

"So... _Objectively_   _pretty_?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Boy, that Riku sure seems worked up, huh?" He completely changed the subject.

"Well, yeah. He likes ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." She said matter-of-factly, like that was a stupid thing for him to have even brought up.

"Well, yeah, but—wait, how do  _you_ know that?" Roxas gaped at her, thinking there was no way Riku would have told her like he had told Roxas.

"I'm not an idiot?" She shrugged, looking at him again like that was a stupid comment for him to make. He must have made a confused face, because she went on to explain, "It's totally obvious. He's built his entire reputation on not giving a shit about anything and playing it cool, but he trips all over himself whenever she's around. And not that you're not best bros, or whatever, but when was the last time _you_ got Riku to come to the library for an impromptu study session?" She gave him a look, and he nodded.

"Fair enough, I guess." He had to admit she had a point. It seemed to him like it was a little less obvious than she was trying to make it, but the signs were definitely there to anyone paying close enough attention, "So...do you think there's a chance she likes him back?" He looked casually down at his papers, and began fidgeting with the strings of the zip-up jacket he wore over his uniform.

"Oh my god." Xion groaned, holding a hand up to her forehead and staring at him like she was in pain, "Not you, too."

"What?" He shrugged, trying to remain casual, but slightly panicking on the inside at the knowing look she was giving him.

She sighed heavily, "What is it about her that makes everyone crazy? Is it the puns? It better not be the puns. If a garbage sense of humor is the new beauty standard, I'm gonna kill somebody. I refuse to listen to—"

"What are you talking about?" He cut her off, determined to find out if she was on to him or not...and it certainly seemed like she was.

"Youlike ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." She came right out and said it, causing him to flush with embarrassment.

"Come again?" He tried to laugh it off, but he knew his cherry red cheeks spoke for themselves.

"You hide it better than Riku, I'll give you that." She shrugged, shaking her head. "God, maybe I  _should_  try dating girls if every guy on the face of the world is in love with her."

"Wouldn't that just make you apart of her dating pool?"

"Shit. There's no escaping her...Who is she? _What_ is she?" Xion's eyes went wide as she bought into her own conspiracy theory, "I mean, you've never even looked at a girl before now, and suddenly..." She trailed off, ending the statement with a shrug and a gesture for him to finish the thought if he wanted.

"I've looked at girls before." He scoffed.

"Oh yeah? Who? Name one." She deadpanned at him, and he opened his mouth to reply, then shut it. There really wasn't anyone. He had a crush on Namine when they were in kindergarten, but somehow he didn't feel like that counted.

"Don't...don't tell anyone, okay?" He sighed, thinking there was no point in fighting her or trying to convince her she was wrong.

"Don't worry, I won't. But there's someone you should tell."

"Who?"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, dumbass." She laughed.

"That's never gonna happen." He shook his head, becoming fully absorbed in his hoodie strings so he didn't have to look at her.

"Why not?"

"No point." He shrugged.

"Don't want to start a fight with Riku?"

"No. It's just...well, look who I'd be competing with. Zack, Genesis, Riku...I'd never win. I'd rather just stay her friend."

"That scared of losing?" She pressed him, and he sighed and looked up at her.

"You know, you are pretty. I like the short hair on you, you pull it off well." He changed the subject right back to the first thing he wanted to avoid talking about.

"Roxas, c'mon. Why do you think those three are better than you? You can talk to me."

He sighed, really not wanting to have this conversation, but at the same time it was kind of a relief to finally share his feelings with someone, "I'm literally not as good as them. Not as tall, not as cheekbone-y, or whatever you said girls like...not as smart, not as cool. Just...not as good. Even if I was  _just_ competing with Riku, I'd still never win."

"Oh please. It's _Riku_." She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, he's smart and objectively attractive, but he makes stupid as shit decisions and is constantly shooting himself in the foot. Especially around ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. Besides, you're her best friend, not him. Not any of them. Give yourself some credit."

He nodded a little, then caught himself, "Why am I talking about this with you again?"

"Bandmate code of honor?" She shrugged and he gave her a look as he began to pack up his things, throwing Purp into his bag haphazardly since there was no real consequence of handling him poorly anymore.

"Forget you know this about me." He said as he got to his feet and started to walk away.

"Oh come on, it's not that big of a deal. I think it's sweet." She said, rushing to pack up her things and catch up with him, "You can always write songs about it!"

**(friendly reminder that in KH canon when Riku tried to beat Roxas, he got his ass smeared across the wall, so...)**

∞

"So, did they really not know she was dating both of them at the same time, or was one of them keeping it secret?" Genesis asked after you gave him an overview of the Kairi-Riku-Sora situation.

"They were completely blindsided, so they must not have known. I don't know how they couldn't know, but...I guess it must have happened over the summer? There's no way they could have been in school while it happened. Someone would have told them they were being two-timed." You shrugged, wishing you had better details, "I don't really know the whole story, they don't like to talk about it, but that's the jist of it."

"Well, that explains why they were fighting, but I still don't see why you're a jackass."

"Because, Riku made the whole thing up. He didn't ask me not to invite her, I just forgot about her. Like a jackass. She found out I invited all our friends out but her, then Riku lied for me to cover up what an insensitive idiot I am. And I let him." You sighed and ran a hand through your hair in frustration, "Now I don't know what to do. I feel like I should tell her the truth, but everyone else thinks what's done is done and I should just let it go."

"Maybe you should." He shrugged and you gave him a look.

"Not you, too. Doesn't anyone around here have a moral compass?"

He laughed, "I'm not an expert in the delicate art of female relationships, but it sounds like you found the only way to preserve whatever friendship you have left with her. Riku was caught in the crossfire, but it seems to me like there wasn't much of a chance for reconciliation between them anyway. I have to agree, if you stand any chance of staying friends with her, you should just let him take the heat for you."

"I guess. Still shitty though." You mumbled, looking at your feet and wishing you could just take back the past few hours.

"Hey," He nudged you just enough that it tripped you up a little and caused you to look at him, "You're not insensitive, or a jackass, or an idiot."

"Shows what you know." You shrugged with a small smile, and he laughed.

"You're not. It was a pretty minor misunderstanding that got blown out of proportion by emotions. You're not intentionally cruel or callous. It was just a mistake."

"Wish she saw it that way."

"This is her problem, not yours. Every argument has two levels; the content specific argument, and the deeper emotional argument. Anyone would be upset if they were excluded from the group, but not everyone would charge down to the place where the group was meeting to yell at the one in charge of the invites. That kind of initiative is driven by something that has nothing to do with you, like she was already angry and just looking for an excuse to lash out at the first opportunity. You were just unlucky enough be caught in her war path."

You nodded, suddenly feeling like some of the weight had been lifted off your shoulders and you could breathe a little easier. You still felt a terrible, guilty pit in your stomach, but it at least felt a little bit smaller now. "  
"This is why I like hanging out with you. It's like there's a bubble of calm around you. Nothing rattles you. Nothing is so intense you can't think your way out of it."

"Really? You like that about me? I would have thought you found it boring, considering the usual chaos you surround yourself with." He seemed genuinely surprised, and happy about it.

"I like the chaos, too, it's just...I can't always deal with it. Sometimes I get so stressed out, it's hard to think straight. You know, the other day I actually tried to debate with Gippal. I mean, how far down the rabbit hole do you need to be to try and convince Gippal he's wrong about something?"

"Now there's a lost cause." He chuckled at the thought, then gave you a sympathetic smile.

"How do you do it? How do you always manage to stay so composed?"

He shrugged, like he really didn't know how to answer that, "I try to minimize my interactions with Gippal, for a start."

"A luxury few can afford." You laughed, thinking he enjoyed riling you up far too much to ever let an opportunity to annoy you go.

"I suppose I just try to think things through rationally before choosing to react. That way, there's no flying off the handle or over-reacting to anything."

"A rationalist. Well, that explains it. Rationalizing has never been a strong suit of mine."

"I know. You're a Strife; there's a certain impulsive nature that comes with that." He gave you a knowing look, and you felt your cheeks heating up as you got the distinct feeling he was making fun of you.

"I'm hardly a Strife."

"Maybe not by blood, but we'd be hard pressed to find anyone who fits in better with that family than you. You're a lot more like Cloud than you think. You're both headstrong and play by your own rules."

"I'm gonna choose to take that as a compliment." You said calmly, though you shot him some side eye and crossed your arms, realizing he was trying to rile you up on purpose.

"That's how I meant it, so good. See? You're acting more rationally already." He grinned, and you rolled your eyes.

"Alright, so what's lesson two?"

"Let's see," He stopped walking, so you did too, "Chin up, shoulders back, and..." he began, gently raising your chin with his pointer finger, then he put his hands on your shoulders to help you square them before finishing the thought by taking the hardback book he was still carrying under his arm and balancing it on the top of your head, "there." You tried not to laugh, knowing that would make the book fall, and he held an arm out like he was gesturing for you start walking.

"Hmm, well, I feel fancier. But not exactly less stressed." You commented as you took a few steps, managing to balance the book pretty well, actually. You stepped up onto your tippy toes then spun back to face him, but the book stayed put. Aqua's dance and flexibility training was really coming in handy, you thought, knowing she was doing her best to counteract your naturally clumsy nature.

"The illusion of poise, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. Fake it until you make it."

"Oh, so what you're saying is behind those pensive looks, you're internally screaming just as much as the rest of us are."

"Maybe." He shrugged, taking the book off your head as you walked back within reach of him, and putting it on his own head, "Maybe not. I just don't pay any attention to the things that I know are out of my control and stress me out." He took a few steps, but the book slid off quickly, "Look at that, you're already better at level 2 than I am."

"And the student becomes the teacher." You smirked, walking over and putting your hands on his shoulders to push them back a bit before raising his chin and helping to center the book on the top of his head.

"Should have known I'd be no match for you." He said with a small smile, wanting to look at you but noticing the book sliding the second he tried to lower his chin. He sighed and took the book of his head and handed it over to you. You put it back on your head and started walking towards home again.

"Well, would you look at that. Lessons in poise and a confidence boost. I should walk home with you more often."

"Maybe you should." He shrugged, trying to remain casual but smiling despite himself.

**(Optional Romance Scene)**

"Listen, I know Basch asked me to stay away from you for the time being, but—"

"Wait, he said that?" You scoffed.

"Something like that." He nodded, and you rolled your eyes.

"Well, everything he said to you he said to Zack too, and he's probably in my living room watching TV as we speak, so you don't have to play by Basch's rules either." You felt yourself getting worked up and distinctly noticed how much harder it was to keep the book level on your head, so you let out a heavy breath and went back to concentrating on balancing to try and calm down.

"Zack and Cloud have been close for years, Basch knows him. It's different."

"It shouldn't be. It was my fault anyway. I'm the one who—"

"You're very hard on yourself, you know. About that, about the Kairi thing."

"Yeah, I know. I'm chock-full of character flaws." You sighed, resisting the urge to feel bad about it and instead turning your thoughts to the book on your head, "You know, this is a great trick." You said, pointing to the book and turning your head very slightly and slow to look at him.

"I made it up on the spot." He shrugged.

"Of course you did." You laughed, feeling a little like an idiot, but not enough to stop.

"Hey, if it works, it works. Besides, that night was beyond any of our control, and it sounds to me like Kairi was being a real 'c u next tuesday,' if you know what I mean. None of it really reflects on you."

"A see you next—Oh my god!" You laughed, needing to take a second to figure out his joke but cracking up once you got it, "That's really good. You know, no one ever talks about you being funny, but you are."

"Probably too busy coming up with their own opinions of me to actually get to know me."

"I guess that must get pretty annoying. I know my friends do it all the time. Selphie told me that when she first moved here she convinced herself you had a British accent and originally came from Port Royal, just because she couldn't be bothered to actually try and talk to you."

"I'll admit, I do like hearing the things people come up with sometimes. The truth is so much less interesting."

"Consider yourself lucky." You mumbled, thinking if the truth got out about you and the stigma, it would make you a freak.

"What was that?" He asked, leaning in to make sure he could hear you after completely missing what you had said.

"Don't worry about it." You shrugged, "And listen, you may not secretly be a Port Royal pirate, or a long lost prince from the Enchanted Dominion," you began and he raised an eyebrow and shot you a curious look, so you explained, "Yuffie."

"Ah." He smiled and nodded, thinking that sounded like something she would come up with.

"But you're nice and you're smart. And you don't stress me out, so you're more than okay in my book just the way you are." You finished, and he stopped walking again so you did too and turned to face him. You felt the book begin to slip and had to tilt your head forward to keep it in place, then he raised his hand up to your chin again to raise it slightly. You thought he was just trying to help you balance the book again, but then he began to lean in. "No poetic pickup line? I thought you always knew the right thing to say." You mused, catching his intention right away and taking the smallest of steps closer to him.

"Another myth." He smiled and gave a slight shrug as he moved his hand from under your chin and let it slide gently along your jawline until his thumb was in front of your ear and the rest of his fingers wrapped around to the back of your head and the nape of your neck. You closed your eyes and let your head rest in his hand as he leaned in and pressed his lips against yours. There was a certain gentleness to his movements, and you couldn't figure out why until you tried to lean into him a little more and then got hit in the nose by the hardback cover of the book as it slipped off you head and fell down your face. You broke away from him and you both held your hands out to catch the book, and after it landed and fell open on your palms you began laughing at what an embarrassing way to end a kiss that was.

"You okay?" You asked, knowing it hit him in the face when it fell as well.

"I'm fine." He nodded, smiling so widely you could see his teeth as he tucked the book under his arm then brushed the hair out of your face so he could see the bridge of your nose to check if you were hurt. It was a little red, but you were still laughing and smiling so he knew you were alright. He leaned in again and gave you a proper kiss, putting a hand behind your back to pull you in now that there wasn't anything to worry about. He knew better than to just start making out in the middle of the street, so almost as quickly as he came in for the kiss, he pulled away and kept his arm around your back to get you walking again.

"Let's get you home before you're missed." He said, moving his arm to around your shoulder once you were moving again.

"Mhm...you mean before Basch notices I might be out with you." You eyed him and he laughed.  
"Nothing gets by you, does it?"

∞

At home, Cloud and Leon were taking up the whole living room, watching some movie on TV that you'd never heard of. You thought about joining them, but it seemed like they were having such a nice time reconnecting that you didn't want to interrupt. At dinner, you got to know Leon a little bit better, but it seemed like he wasn't a particularly chatty guy. He would respond to anything said to him by Basch or your mother, and was quick to bite back at Cloud with an insult when needed, but you found you had a hard time coming up with anything to say to him. So you mostly didn't talk at dinner, and went up to your room afterwards instead of joining them for round two on the TV.

Once you were done doing everything you needed to do that night, you took some time to just stare at your phone blankly, as if willing it to ring. There were several message notifications from various people that you knew you should be looking at, but you somehow couldn't tear yourself away from your call log. It was mostly full of calls to Prompto, and the occasional call to your mom, but the name you were looking for wasn't there. No text, no call, no voicemail.

With a sigh, you forced yourself to put the phone away and get ready for bed. After your face was washed and your teeth were brushed, you went looking for Cloud to see if he would be willing to help you get to sleep with some magic. You found him downstairs lounging on the small couch with a bowl of popcorn in his lap that was pretty much all kernels, but he was still chewing away on them. Leon was stretched out on the L shaped couch, playing games on what you knew was Cloud's cell phone from the chocobo on the case. They didn't see you walk up, so you were able to catch the tail end of their conversation before interrupting.

"If you lived in the barracks with no phone, no TV, and no internet then you'd understand." Leon was saying before you walked into the room, though he was in a zombie-like trance as he stared at the screen with a glazed over look.

"Oh, I understand. But you're acting like you didn't knowSeeD life would suck. Even Zack said he wouldn't go near the SeeD applications, and we all know where he's trying to wind up."

"In your sister's pants?" Leon snickered, and Cloud scoffed.

"Not funny."

"A little funny." Leon just shrugged, like the patented 'Strife Murder Eyes' had no effect on him. If he wasn't bothered, he was about the only one in the world they didn't work on. Or maybe he was just too wrapped up in his game of Moogle Mash to notice, "And SeeD life does  _not_  suck. You're just not cut out for hard work."

"Well, you got me there, but still...looks shitty from here. I mean, how many weeks were you out in the wilderness by yourself, just trying to track down criminals?"

"Eight weeks."

"You got that beard in eight weeks?" Cloud looked up, genuinely surprised by that.

"Don't worry, Sport. One day you'll start to grow body hair, too. Lots of boys are late bloomers."

"Fuck off. God, I forgot what a dick you are."

Leon sighed wistfully, "It's a shame I had to get rid of it. They'd never take me back, looking like that, but man, I miss it."

"You looked like an old ship captain." Cloud rolled his eyes.

"I bet that's why Basch has always had a beard. People respect a guy with a beard. No body picks fight with you, people get out of your way when they see you coming. It was awesome." He wasn't exactly enthusiastic sounding. It was more like he missed the way people left him alone when he had it, and now that he was back in the Strife household where backtalk and sassing were a second language, all that went out the window.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much. Shaving your beard didn't fix your resting bitch face. Nothing to worry about there."

"Thanks..." Leon put the phone down for a second to give Cloud a dry look, and then he saw you coming down the stairs, "Speaking of your sister's pants."

"Can you not say shit like--oh. Hey, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈."

"What about my pants? And who has a bitch face?" You asked, leaning on the back of the couch Cloud was sitting on after walking over.

"Nothing, and Leon."

You snickered, and must have made some kind of hum of agreement because now Leon was giving you that same look as he gave Cloud.

"What's wrong with my face, exactly?"

"Nothing's  _wrong_  with it. It's just..." You began with a slight shrug.

"It's just  _super_  bitchy." Cloud finished.

"Look who's talking." Leon shot Cloud a look.

The two locked eyes, each getting a grumpier expression by the second. It probably wouldn't be the first time for either of them, since their rivalry was pretty blatantly obvious, but still. You were the only one around right now, and didn't want to be the one who had to break up the fight.

"Now, now. You've both got a bad case of RBF." You interjected, afraid a fist fight might break out if this kept going.

"Was there something you needed, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Cloud asked, not taking his eyes off Leon.

"Yeah, can I borrow you from your lovers quarrel for a sec? I need your help with something."

"You just have to be a dick about everything, don't you?" Cloud sighed as he got to his feet.

"There's gotta be some kind of 'apples from the same tree taste the same' equivalent for 'apples not falling far from the tree.' You're both dicks." Leon mumbled.

"I'm sorry, who are you again?" This time you gave him a look.

"For the eighth time, it's Leon."

"Whatever, Leroy." You dismissed him completely, knowing that would probably irritate him more than any other kind of comeback you might come up with. With that, you made to go right back up the stairs with Cloud right behind you. Once you were back in your room, you hopped into bed and Cloud did his best to put you to sleep by placing a cold hand on your forehead. It wasn't anything like Ven or Lulu's magic, or even Aqua's, but he was trying his best so you didn't complain. Instead of being forced from consciousness into an instant, it was more like everything went hazy and your limbs became too heavy to move. You just had to lay there, unable to move, until sleep finally came on its own.

∞

The next two days were about as boring as could be, with nothing really happening at all in school. Classes were dull and you slept through most of them, and there was a weird tension in the hall between everyone who had seen the fight in the library last night.

When you got home on Thursday after watching blitz practice, for once the house was empty. You didn't know where your mom was, but you assumed Basch was still at work and Cloud went off with Leon somewhere. Even though you had the house to yourself, you just went up to your room after getting a quick snack, deciding to call Prompto for a quick chat and to catch up.

Ignis, who you learned from Prompto was some kind of tutor/nanny/caretaker for Noctis, had planned a trip for the boys to go to a chocobo ranch, so Prompto was showing you pictures of himself losing his shit on the ranch. There were little babies and big, powerful looking racing chocobos, and he even got a couple dozen selfies of himself trying to feed some of them. You were laughing and enjoying listening to him gush about what a good time he had when the phone suddenly beeped to let you know there was another call waiting for you.

"Kairi?" You mumbled aloud, interrupting a story of a chocobo stealing Ignis' glasses.

"Huh?" Prompto asked, hearing your surprised outburst upon seeing the name on the caller ID.

"Sorry, someone else is trying to call me right now..."

"Oh no you don't! You don't get out of my Choco-berry Tales that easily." He said, and you could tell he was beaming just from the sound of his voice.

"I swear, I'm not trying to. But I really think I need to take this call." You explained, and he puffed out his cheeks and sighed.

"Oh, fine. But I'm not done with you! You're gonna look at all my choco scrapbook and you're gonna like it."

"Maybe if you were a better photographer, it wouldn't be such a chore."

"Hey!"

"Kidding! I was only kidding." You laughed, "I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, sure. Ditch me for your new friends. You're not breaking my heart at all."

"Prompto."

"I'm kidding, go. You're boring me anyway." He said playfully, and with that you clicked over to Kairi's call.

"Hello?" You asked tentatively, not sure why she would be calling you, or what to expect from this. You had to sit up from your casual laying position in anticipation for what was about to happen. You only hoped she wasn't calling to yell at you some more, but she hadn't said two words to you since the library so you had no idea where her head was or if she was still mad.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, good, I was worried you wouldn't pick up." She began, sounding a little awkward, but perfectly polite and causal. "Listen, I know I was...completely horrible to you, and I wouldn't blame you for hanging up on me, but...I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. You know, for snapping at you, and for assuming the worst about you. It wasn't fair, I know that. I want you to know I didn't mean anything I said, really. I was just lashing out, but I know it was at the wrong person now and I'd like to apologize."

"Oh." You mumbled, a bit dumbstruck, honestly. You didn't see this coming.

"I should never have been so nasty to you...I'm really sorry you had to see that side of me. I know I can jump to conclusions...I just hope we can still be friends, and put all this silly tension behind us."

"Yeah, of course. I'd really like that." You let out a laughing sigh of relief.

"Let's just pretend it never happened. I can't believe I blamed you. I should have known it was Riku."

"You know, he wasn't trying to hurt you, he was only—"

"You don't have to defend him, it's okay. I know he hates me. I'm not happy about that, but I understand. And I don't want it to impact our relationship, either. Just...can you forgive me?"

"Consider it forgiven and forgotten." You said, feeling very conflicted. Part of you was relieved she still wanted to be your friend, but your conscience still felt so heavy. The whole reason she was calling you was because she bought the lie you had been feeding her.

"Thanks, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. You're a good friend. I wish I could be more like you."

You didn't quite know how to respond to her. It felt almost like this was happening in a dream, where you didn't quite have full control of yourself. Like you wanted to tell her the truth, but your voice wasn't working. "You don't want to be like me, trust me."

"Says you." She laughed, "Well, that's all I wanted to say. Sorry for bothering you."

"No worries...I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you." She said, and then the line went dead.

As soon as the call ended, you broke out of your daze and decided you needed to talk to someone about this. Riku was probably the most relevant person to the conversation, so you pulled yourself out of bed and made for the window. His curtains were open and you could see him sitting at the desk in his room on the computer. He was probably doing homework, like he usually did around this time of night, but you didn't mind interrupting him.

"Hey, so something really weird just happened to me." You said, making your way in through the window and dropping down onto his bed like you owned the place.

"Oh sure, just let yourself in, make yourself comfortable." Riku didn't bother looking back at you or lifting his gaze from the computer screen.

"I always do. Anyways," you began, and he sighed before turning around in the desk chair to give you an annoyed look, "you'll never guess who I just got off the phone with."

"A window lock manufacturer?"

"Kairi."

He made a face and some kind of groan of disapproval, "She want to yell at you some more?"

"She apologized. Said she was sorry for snapping at me, took back everything she said to me...made a few comments about how she should have known it was your doing..."

"Well, there you go. All's well that ends well." He shrugged then sighed when he saw your expression, "What's with that face?"

"What's wrong with my face?"

"You're pouting."

"I'm not pouting I'm...conflicted." You corrected him. You were able to feel your eyebrows knitting in a worried fashion, so there was no point in denying it was bothering you when it was so plainly apparent.

"About what? I've told you, I'm completely fine with the way everything went down."

"I'm not. I felt like a real piece of shit accepting her apology just now." You mumbled, feeling the unconscious need to run a hand through your hair. It was like you felt icky for lying to her about it, but you weren't sure why. You lied all the time, but this felt entirely different to you somehow.

"I don't know what you want me to say. I'm not sorry I did it."

"I just want to know why you did it. You didn't have to."

"Yeah I did. You made a typical, silly ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈-style mistake, and she attacked you for it. You value your relationship with her, I don't. So, I stepped in."

"I don't need you to fight my battles for me."

"I know that, I wasn't trying to. Believe me, if it had been anyone else, I would have let them tear you to shreds and laughed while watching it happen. Kairi is different, though. She has no right to be getting angry at anyone, least of all you."

"Fine, but one last question," you began, and he sighed heavily but gave in and waited for you to get on with it, "Did you do it because you wanted to help me, or because you wanted to hurt her?"

"Does that matter?" He shrugged.

"It does to me. You know I don't want you fighting with her, especially not because of me."

"I did it to help you." He said, and you let out a sigh of relief and nodded, "And a little bit to hurt her."

"Riku..." You scolded him, and he laughed.

"Just a little, teeny tiny bit."

"You horse's ass." You rolled your eyes at him.

"I'm kidding."

"No you're not." You shook your head, and he smirked.

"Whatever, think what you want. Hey, you wanna go up to the roof for a sec? I need some air." He asked, turning back to his desk and saving the essay he was writing before closing his laptop and getting to his feet.

"Yeah, alright, I could probably use some too." You shrugged, scanning around his room after you realized you were just in your socks and didn't want to climb or walk on the roof without shoes, "Can I borrow some shoes?"

"Depends, will I be giving you these shoes to help you, or will it be to hurt—"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'm annoying. Gimme some shoes." You cut him off.

"Yes, you are." He smirked, opening his closet door and leaning in for a second to dig around before walking over and handing you a pair of old ratty looking sneakers, "You'll look stylish as always in these bad boys."

"Good god, how old are these?" You crinkled your nose as you took them from him and began to slip them on. He sat down next to you on the bed and began pulling on the converse he had been wearing today at school.

"Two, maybe three years old?" He guessed, "I don't know. They stopped fitting me around 14, so probably perfect for you."

"Why do you still have them then?" You laughed, thinking they were so big you were able to step in them without the opening touching any part of your ankle and your toes were no where near the end of the shoe. You had to yank the laces down as tight as you could get them to try and make them at least a little bit secure.

"Figured they might come in handy one day when some snot nosed little girl with chicken legs comes in asking for a pair." He mocked you, grabbing one of your ankles and pulling your leg up onto his knee before untying the knot you made and giving the laces a good pull.

"Ow! Hey, what are you doing?" You complained, feeling the shoe collapse down around your foot under the tension as he pulled the laces to high heavens.

"Well, sorry, but I'm not having you fall off my roof because you're too lazy to get your own shoes." He said, wrapping the excess laces around the shoe twice before tying them to make sure they stayed on tight, then he knocked your ankle off his knee when he was done.

"The prices you gotta pay to stay lazy." You sighed, and he patted his knee as a way to tell you to give him the other foot.

When he was all finished up and you were ready to go, you crawled over to the window so you wouldn't be stepping on his bed with shoes on even though he didn't seem to give a shit and stepped up right after you. You were so used to the path from his room to yours that you could do it with your eyes closed, but the trip to his roof was a different story. You were secretly kinda thankful he was so insistent on the shoes being on properly, because they really did make all the difference when climbing and jumping from the tree to the roof. Once you were up there though, things went back to quiet and peaceful. You laid back, and dug your heels in so you wouldn't go sliding down the slight incline while stargazing. It was only around 6:00 pm, but the sun had been down since school let out so the stars were out on full display for you.

"How are things going with you, anyways?" Riku asked, folding his hands behind his head as he laid back beside you.

"Could be worse." You shrugged.

"Come on, really. And what's with Ven leaving again? No one ever told me."

"Yeah, well, he didn't really tell me either, so..." You began, then you looked over at him and caught the annoyed look he was giving you, so you changed your tone and started again, "The day we got back from survival training, he and Lulu were waiting at my house to tell me they were popping off to Midgar for a few weeks to do...something. Said it was Stigma research, but I don't really know. Then they left. That's it. Haven't heard from them since. And I'm muddling through on my own for the most part. I'm tired. Really, really tired. I haven't slept well in days, but I don't want to make Cloud or Aqua feel bad for not being able to help. It sucks, but at least the pain is manageable and they'll be back soon. I hope."

"How soon?" He asked, and you just answered with a big shrug, "That does suck."

"Anyway, how are you doing? Anything new going on with you?"

"Nah, same as ever. I can't wait to get to Spira. Life in Traverse Town is always so uneventful."

"Hah, speak for yourself." You said, and he laughed.

"You're the exception to that rule." He nudged you, and you laughed a little yourself before a quiet fell over the two of you for a few minutes.

"You said..." You began, not sure if he would be willing to answer this, but also if he was going to be up in your business all the time maybe you could return the favor, "you said your dad had the stigma, too, right?"

He didn't answer you right away, and you rolled over onto your tummy so you could prop up on your elbows and look at him.

"Did I say that? I meant he has a bad case of chronic swine flu." He finally said, sitting up and leaning back on his elbows so he could match your eye level.

"Mhm." You gave him a look, and he sighed.

"Yeah, he did. Mom said it had something to do with his work, that he had it long before they ever met."

"Wait, he was already sick when they had you? Is it genetic?" You asked, realizing you hadn't even thought of that before. It wasn't really something you were considering any time soon, but what if it meant you could never have kids? It wasn't even something you were sure you wanted, but you might never be able to do it now. It would be just one more thing the stigma was going to take away from you.

"It's an autoimmune disease, so yeah, there's a genetic component to it. But I've been lucky so far. I'm a carrier for the mutated gene that causes the stigma, but it's dormant for now. Something might trigger it eventually, but in the meantime I get blood tests every couple of years and just kinda live with the threat."

"I had no idea..."

"'Course you didn't. It's not exactly something I advertise." He shrugged, looking down at his t-shirt and casually picking off a bit of fuzz that caught his eye, "All my brothers were fine until around age ten, but so far nothing for me. I'm a ticking time bomb."

"Look who you're talking to. I have a shelf-life. Expiration date is a little smudged, but it's there somewhere." You replied.

"That's a dark sense of humor you've got there." He said, still chuckling a little at your joke, but also knowing how scared you really were.

"It's a coping mechanism." You shrugged, then went on, "Why don't I know anything about your brothers other than you have some? I've never heard you talk about them. I'm pretty sure this is the first time you've even mentioned them to me."

"Roxas?" He asked, raising an eyebrow as if to ask how you even knew he had brothers.

"Sora." You corrected and he sighed. He knew you better than to think you would just let this go, so he decided to bite the bullet and just tell you.

"I have three older half-brothers, Kadaj, Yazoo, and Loz. They're four years older and triplets, and they left with my father after Kadaj started showing signs of the stigma when he was ten. A couple months later, Yazoo got it, then a year after that Loz finally got it too. My dad was never one to stay home and live with us, he was always off on some work-related trip or another. But when he found out his kids were getting sick, he decided to take them away and live somewhere else in hopes that it wouldn't spread to me. At least that's what my mom says, but it reeks of bullshit to me. He took my brothers before all of them were sick, and then after they were gone my mom and I suddenly moved away? Something's not right there." He shook his head, then had to run a hand through his hair to get it out of his eyes.

"What do you think is going on?"

"No idea. I don't really...like talking about this, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. I'm sorry, but—"

"Hey, don't worry. I get it." You said, and you really meant it. If anyone knew how shitty people prying about someone's family life was, it was you. You even turned back over to lay down again to prove you were going to drop the conversation and go right back to looking at the stars in silence if he wanted. This was supposed to be a relaxing break from reality, after all. There was no need to go drudging up the past.

**(Optional Romance Scene)**

"Oh hey! A meteor!" You sat up excitedly, seeing something shooting slowly across the sky.

"Where?" He asked, scanning the sky but not seeing it. You scooted up to his level and leaned back on your elbow so you could position yourself from his perspective, then pointed. "That's not a meteor." Riku rolled his eyes and knocked your arm down after seeing what you were pointing out.

"It totally is!" You argued, putting your head right next to his and pointing again so you were as sure as you could be that he was looking were he was supposed to be.

"That's a gummi ship."

"No, not that. _That!_ " You insisted, then you scoffed, "I know the difference between a meteorite and a gummi ship."

"Apparently not, because—oh,  _that."_ He marveled, finally seeing it. "Yeah, you might be right."

You laughed, "Such an asshole. Can't just enjoy something. Always gotta make it about being right or wrong."

"Oh, like you and the Kairi thing. Can't just enjoy getting off scot-free. Gotta make sure I did it for the right reason."

"Well you didn't do it for the right reason, so..." You shot him a look, and he shook his head.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, please. It happened so fast, you really think the whole time she was yelling at you I was just sitting there trying to come up with the most hurtful thing to say to her?"

"Maybe..."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈."

"What? You're spiteful. I don't know." You shrugged.

"Even I'm not  _that_  spiteful. It was a reflex. I..." He sighed heavily, "You're gonna make me say it, aren't you?" You gave him a curious look, thinking you weren't really sure what he was about to say, "Fine. I wanted to help you. I saw you were in trouble, and the impulse to jump in and take the blame just popped into my head. All that spite didn't kick in until after I was sure I had helped you."

"Well, thank you."

"That's it?" He looked over at you with a skeptical expression, and you gave a one shoulder shrug, not sure what he was on about, "No making fun of me? No 'My hero' or knight in shining armor jokes?"

"Well, I would, but this is such good character development for you, frankly I don't want to jinx it by—"

"There's that classic ≈≈≈≈≈≈ charm." He shoved you a little to get your smirking face farther away from him.

"What can I say? You drive me to it. Really though...thanks." You wiped the smile off your face to try and show him you were being sincere.

"Stop thanking me like you're surprised I'd do something nice for you. Now change the subject, I'm sick of talking about this."

"Alright, alright. Fine." You mumbled looking over at him and wondering how it was he was so impossible to deal with all the time. He rolled his eyes at you, knowing exactly what you were thinking, then went back to looking at the stars. He glared at you from the corner of his eye after he realized you were still staring at him, but you didn't care. You could still remember thinking how striking he was the first time you met him, and how you still felt that way today. His silver hair lit up in the moonlight and fell in his stunning eyes like it always did, partially hiding them from you.

"What are you looking at?" He finally asked, thinking you'd been staring at him for a solid two minutes, so you were probably up to something, "Is there something on my face?"

"I was looking at your hair." You shrugged.

"Oh my god, not this again." He sighed, shooting you a pleading look.

"You ever thought about getting it cut?" You asked, reaching over and running your fingers through the front section of his hair that was always hiding his face, brushing it back and holding it in a clump so you could actually see his full face for once. It was the first time you had ever seen his eyebrows and forehead unobstructed by messy silver hair.

"I'm sorry, what?" He deadpanned at you, blinking heavily as your finger swept the hair away from his face near his eyes, but then he relaxed and let you do what you were gonna do once that part was over.

"Yeah, I mean, just a little trim. I didn't even know you  _had_  a forehead." You mused, continuing to play with his hair despite the grumpy look he was getting on his face, "Or maybe not...long is kinda nice, too." You mused, pulling it back into a ponytail then peering around to see how it looked. You made an unsure face, then tried a low bun and made him turn his head left to right, then you almost got to try a high bun before he finally had to speak up.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, what are you doing?" He sighed at you, seeing that you were about to take the elastic band around your wrist off and really test out the new hairstyles.

"Experimenting." You shrugged, "What? You never do anything different with it."

"You want me to start curling it or something? Straightening it?"

"It's already straight." You laughed, fixing his hair into a high, messy bun with the hair tie, then beaming at him, "That looks amazing."

He brought a hand back to feel what you did, and felt the loads of stray shorter hairs falling as they didn't quite make it all the way back into the hair tie, "Why are you like this?" He chuckled, knowing it probably looked terrible.

"Oh come on, I like it! You have beautiful eyes, you shouldn't hide them."

"What did I tell you about calling me pretty and shit like that?" He sighed, and you laughed.

"You're right, I'm sorry. I meant to say your eyes are a very masculine shade of aquamarine. And those eyelashes—!"

"Fuck off." He laughed, and you joined him, "You know, your eyes are a very masculine shade of ______."

"Aw, you noticed!" You cracked up, more at his expression than anything, feeling like this was the best laugh you'd had in ages. You settled back onto your elbows, sighing happily as the giggles died down, then noticed that this time he was the one looking over at you, "What, you wanna mess with my hair now too?"

"No." He said simply, in a lower tone than his usual smug joking one. There were only a few strands of hair still in his face, so there was nothing to buffer his suddenly incredibly intense gaze. He raised a hand and brought it towards your face, and you clenched your eyes in anticipation for him messing with your bangs in some way despite what he said, but he didn't. His fingers grazed your cheek lightly on their way to tucking your hair behind your ear. "Listen, I...I know we joke a lot, and I don't say it much, but I really...worry...about you. A lot." He said, sounding uncertain of himself, which was completely strange for him.

"Well, don't. I'm okay." You gave a light shrug. You weren't going to let the conversation get too heavy if you could help it.

"I know. It's just..." He sighed, "Wow, I'm not good at this."

"No, you're not." You laughed, realizing he was trying to be sincere with you, but couldn't quite get the hang of opening up to you, "But that's alright. I'll try not to make you worry."

He gave a small smile then sighed, like that wasn't really what he wanted to say but he wasn't going to try and correct you.

"Something wrong?" You asked as he continued to look like he was debating what to say next, "Oh, I know...you're worried that you're getting a firsthand look at your future here."

"That's not what I was thinking." He propped up on his elbows and turned slightly in towards you so he made sure you were looking at him. Maybe, in the deepest part of his mind where he didn't really have much control over his thoughts, that really was what he had been thinking.

"It's okay if that's what you're thinking. I get it. It must be scary...but you shouldn't worry. I mean, it's not exactly easy, but, if I can scrape by, you certainly can too. And hey, at least it's not the kind of illness that dries your skin out. That'd be the worst."

"Yeah, that would be a real bummer." He gave you a look and you laughed, "Would you get serious?"

"I could, but I won't. With things like this all you can do is laugh or cry, and crying gets you nowhere. You have to take the happy moments that come your way and try to milk them for all they're worth. Most of the time, life's pretty shitty. But moments like right now make it feel worth it. Being able to get away from it all and talk about normal—even stupid—things...it's everything to me."

"I'm glad I can be a part of that for you. And if... _when_  the time comes, I hope you'll do the same for me."

"Just try and stop me. I'll get Sora to back me up, and you won't have a minute of time to yourself to brood in."

"More like I won't have a minute of peace, but sure. I'll take it." He said, and you gave him a small smile. It wasn't exactly cheery to talk about how you needed help to get through most days, or to say you'd help him do the same, but it was deeply comforting in a way.

"It's a promise then."

He found himself staring at you again, admiring the way you always managed to smile. He didn't even have the stigma yet, but it already felt like the weight of it was bearing down on him sometimes. It was hard for him to imagine how crushing it must have been for you to find out you had it, especially since it came out of nowhere. He at least knew it was something that might happen to him. He remembered thinking you must have been some kind of resilient, and the next thing he knew he was leaning in to kiss you. He didn't process his actions, or consciously tell himself to do it. He was just looking into your eyes when something took over him. He didn't know if it was instinct, emotion, or if he was just trying to make a happy moment as meaningful as possible, but whatever the reason he was now kissing you. You were soft and warm, and didn't pull away despite the surprised gasp you let out right before his lips connected with yours. You even closed your eyes and leaned into him once you understood what was happening.

This wasn't his first kiss by any means, but it didn't feel like any other kiss he'd had in his life. It was like you were alive against him in a way no one else had ever been. For once, it didn't feel like someone was just reacting passively to whatever he did, like it had been with Kairi. You were present, and just as passionate as he was. And you were electric, like there was a literal spark when he kissed you. He felt it as a tingle in his lips and a shiver down his spine, and it made the hair on the back of his neck and his arms stand up, like you weren't just kissing him, you were affecting him.

He heard his phone start ringing in his back pocket, and he sighed heavily as he was forced to pull away to get his phone, "That's my mom's ringtone..." He mumbled grumpily, and you nodded in understanding as he answered it.

While he spoke on the phone, you settled your head back against the roof, suddenly feeling like your face was on fire. It all happened so fast you barely had any time to process what was happening, but now that things had slowed down you felt like your stomach was doing backflips.

"She forgot to get pie crust from the store...wants me to go get one." He shook his head as he hung up the phone after telling her he would head out in a second.

"Oooo, pie crust?" You perked up, propping up on your elbows.

"Pot pie Thursday. You Strife's aren't the only ones with your fancy food days."

"You'll have to let me swing by for dinner one night."

"Seriously? You'd want that?" He asked, thinking no one had ever really shown an interest in hanging around his house, especially since your house was the main hang out spot. Though to be fair, he probably shouldn't have been that surprised, considering how much time you spent in his room.

"Unless I misheard the use of 'Pot Pie Thursday' then yeah, why not? Oh, though maybe not tonight...we have," you paused, trying to think how you should address Leon, "Not guests, but...company? Sure doesn't act like a guest." You mumbled.

"Yeah, okay. Raincheck then. Maybe sometime after Spira."

"Oh yeah...that is coming up pretty soon isn't it?"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, it's basically tomorrow..." He gave you a look and you shrugged, "Well, anyway, I'll see you later. You don't need my help getting down, right?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" You waved him off. He just shook his head and rolled his eyes at you lightly before heading over to the edge of the roof.

∞

After dinner, you heard Cloud and Leon talking about inviting friends over, but you were feeling pretty worn out and just decided to head up to your room for the night and try to get some sleep. The door opened once or twice, and you figured it was probably Zack or Yuffie trying to get you to come downstairs and hang out with everybody, but once they realized you were sleeping they left. You knew you'd be tired no matter how many hours you slept, but you were going to at least try to get a full night's rest. It was getting old being exhausted all the time.

∞

**(non-optional romance scene...deal with it!)**

At lunch on Friday you were leaning against Tifa's arm tiredly, feeling like you were one more stroke of pain away from just calling it quits and going home. Everyone was talking excitedly around you, apparently about something or another to do with the school trip in a few days, but you had long since stopped listening. Everything just felt kind of miserable to you now. Lulu and Ven taking off so suddenly was more than a little demoralizing, and with them went your safety net. Aqua was there in case you had any serious fits of pain, but it still felt uncomfortable to know the number of people able to help you was getting smaller and smaller.

With that thought in mind you decided you did actually want to go home, and maybe take a nice nap to calm your mind. You got to your feet and made to walk away when Yuffie grabbed your hand to stop you.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈? Where are you going?" She asked, like you were walking away from something really important. For all you knew, you might have been. You hadn't been listening to their conversation at all.

"I was gonna...home." You mumbled tiredly, somehow a full sentence seemed like too much effort.

"Are you feeling okay?" She asked, getting up as well and putting a hand on your forehead.

"Yeah, you've looked a little sick all week." Zack said, getting up as well.

" _A little sick_? She's been sweeping through the halls like Death himself the past four days." Gippal mumbled. 

"I'm just tired." Your tone, at least, was reflective of that.

"But...we were kind of having the big talk." Zack glanced back at the table where you now realized they all had out their trip companion ballots, and were deciding on partners.

"Oh...um. Pick for me, I don't care." You shrugged, and Yuffie and Zack exchanged a look.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈? Are you sure you're—" Zack began, and before he could finish the question you sighed heavily and began walking away. You hated that everyone was asking you that all the time.

"I'm going home." You said in a rather definitive tone. You left the lunchroom and were halfway down the sophomore hall when someone's hand found your shoulder and stopped you before they spun you back around. "Zack, I'm really not in the mood." You shot him a weary look as you looked up and saw him standing there.

"I can see that."

You held eye contact with him for a minute or so, "Do you want something or...?"

"Yeah, I'd like you to tell me what's going on."

"I didn't get much sleep, that's all."

"Don't bullshit me." He crossed his arms.

"I'm not. I procrastinated on a paper, and had to spend all night doing it."

"You were in bed by 9:00 ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, I was there." He laughed.

"Yeah, well...if you'll excuse me..." You shot a glance at the hand he still had on your shoulder then gave him a meaningful look, as if warning him he might lose that hand if he didn't let go.

"You know what? No." He said defiantly, and when you shot him a confused look he just shrugged.

"What?" You sighed.

"You're not excused."

"Zack, I'm going home. I don't want to be here anymore."

"That's fine. You don't have to stay here. But you're not getting away that easily."

"Please. I don't want to hurt your feelings, but seriously, leave me alone."

"You want to be alone?"

"Yes." You paused, "No...but I don't want to be here."

"Okay, then let's go." He began leading you down the hall.

"What? Where? Where are we going?" You asked as you followed along behind him.

"You'll see." He smirked, then he poked his head into the nurse's office where Aqua was back in what was normally Ven's office. Zack knew you had gone home early a couple of days this past month, and figure Aqua knew something was up with you, so he did a kind of drive by explanation as you passed by her office to grab a sick pass, "≈≈≈≈≈ doesn't feel well, taking her home, bye!"

"Wait—Zack!" Aqua started, standing up from behind her desk and shooting you a concerned look, but he had already pulled you out of the office and back into the hallway. With that, you were pretty much in the clear to just walk right out the front doors and go...wherever it was Zack was taking you.

He began leading you down a road in the housing district that you knew lead to his house, but soon enough his house came into view and he continued to walk right passed it.

"Where are we going?" You asked again, getting more tired and agitated by the minute.

"Would you relax?"

"I'm really not up for a spontaneous adventure right now." You stopped, seeing that he was leading you into the woods at the end of the road.

"I've noticed." He laughed, shooting you a cheeky smile despite your glare as he held back a tree branch for you to pass under. "Would you just trust me?" He asked, noticing you were glued to the spot with your arms crossed.

"Fine. I trust you." You gave up, ducking under the tree branch and continuing to follow him. You were already this far, you figured you may as well see where he was going with this.

"I know you're grumpy, but have a little faith. I promise it'll be worth it." He said, taking you by the hand as you stumbled over an exposed tree root. "Not far now." He gave your hand a reassuring squeeze and his best smile. You couldn't help but smile a little in return, no matter how agitated you were feeling. You weren't totally immune to the Fair charm, after all.

The dense trees began to open up and you saw a strange greenish glow coming from the clearing. You tried to peer around the trees and rocks to get a look at what could be glowing, but then Zack covered your eyes with his hands. You tried to complain, but he shushed you right up and continued to lead you blindly along in the woods.

"Okay, are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." You shrugged, shuffling your feet in slow steps in case he pushed you into something that might make you trip, whether on purpose or not.

"Open your eyes on three." He said, and you could tell he was all smiles by his happy tone. "One...Two...Three!" He took his hands away from your eyes and you slowly opened them. Before you was a fairly small lake, brightly glowing through the woods and darkness from within. There were pyreflies circling the lake, and on the far side there were tall rocks that looked perfect for jumping off. It was calm and quiet and serene and more than you could have hoped from him.

You turned back to look at him, your mouth hanging open in awe, and he just crossed his arms with a smile, "Welcome to our secret hangout. Cloud and I found this place when we were kids. Top secret...except, you know, for the other kids who know about it, but don't worry about that! They're all in school now, anyways, so shouldn't be a problem."

"It's so beautiful!" You gushed, looking back at the green iridescent water in pure wonder.

"The algae in the water absorbs sunlight, then on dark days like today, it just lets it all out. We even threw a couple of light crystals in there a few years back to make it even brighter. It's our little slice of heaven, and I want you to be a part of it too."

"Thank you. I really needed a break like this. Sorry for being an asshole. I should have trusted you."

"See? I'd never let you down." He smiled, and you let yourself fall into him lightly and wrap your arms around his shoulders in a big hug. He chuckled as he hugged you back, then you kissed him on the cheek before pulling away and letting go of him to take your shoes off and drop your backpack. He went red in the face and began grinning like an idiot as he held a hand up to his cheek while he watched you pull off your tie and socks before making for one of the big rocks on the far side of the lake and doing a running jump into the water.

You splashed down into the chilly water and felt weightlessness take you as you plunged beneath the surface. Your ears popped from the depth you went, but you didn't care. You felt free and painless for the first time in ages. You swam deeper and forced your eyes to open so you could see the glowing world that lived under the still water's surface. You were content to stay down there for as long as your lungs would possibly allow, when something latched onto your arm and wrenched you up towards the surface. It felt like you were being violently and forcibly pulled back to the real world after finally finding a peaceful moment. Not to mention it scared you and hurt your arm.

"Wha—Zack, what the hell!?" You saw him as you broke the surface and tried to free yourself from his death grip on you. You shoved him away from you and dipped your head under water so you could adjust your wet hair out of your face.

"What!? You were down there a long time! I thought you were drowning!" He shot back, splashing some water into your face after letting you go.

"I know how to swim!" You splashed him right back.

"I didn't know that!"

"What about me seeing the water, kicking off my shoes, then deciding to jump right in didn't scream 'I know how to swim' at you!"

"I don't know! You send me very mixed signals all the time! And this past month...you've just seemed so...sad."

"I'm a little depressed, I'm not suicidal!"

"Well I wouldn't know! You don't talk to me!"

"I don't talk to Gippal about my problems either, and he doesn't go around—"

"That's not the point, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. I want you to talk to me, to tell me what's going on with you. I'm not stupid, I know there's something wrong. You, Cloud, and Tifa have been walking on eggshells whenever I'm around...just tell me what's going on. I could help...I...I could." His tone shifted dramatically from his worried yelling at you to barely above a whisper as he stared down into the water, afraid to meet your eye, "I want to help."

You suddenly noticed how hurt he looked and started to feel just a little guilty.

"Please don't feel bad. I've been going through some stuff, and I don't want to go dragging everyone else into it. It's personal, you know?"

"But...you've told Cloud about it." He continued to look down at the water, sheepishly avoiding your gaze.

"He's my brother."

"And Tifa."

"I knew she wouldn't tell anyone."

"So what? You don't trust me?" He looked heartbroken.

"I didn't say that. I'm not keeping anything from you because I want to, or because I think you'd go around telling everyone for fun, It's just...it's serious, and very personal, and I don't like talking about it."

"Alright...I guess I can respect that...I just wish you wouldn't shut me out. I care about you, you know? I mean...we're friends, right?"

"Of course we are." You bit your cheek. It was kind of true that you let some friends in but left others out in the cold. Sure, you didn't want to go shouting about your condition from the rooftops, but maybe you could tell him. It was Zack after all, and you knew he'd never do anything to hurt you on purpose. "Look...I—"

"No, don't tell me." He stopped you, though he sounded very conflicted. It was like he desperately wanted to know, but didn't want to force you, "If you told me now...it would just kinda feel like you were saying it because I put you on the spot, not because you actually wanted me to know."

"Thank you." You gave him a weak smile, and he sighed.

"Just let me know that you're okay every once in awhile. I worry about you. Especially when you stop eating and sleep through lunch and don't respond to my texts."

"I'm sorry, I know I've been a little...not myself." You sank into the water so you were floating on your back and didn't have to look him in the eye anymore.

"I'm not trying to make you feel worse, I'm just worried about you." He swam over beside you and put a hand behind your shoulder blades to make sure you were sufficiently above the surface of the water.

"It's sweet of you to worry, but I wish you wouldn't." You forced yourself upright again, getting the feeling that he thought you were shutting him out again by trying to float away from the conversation, literally.

"I wish I could stop, but...that's just not gonna happen." He shrugged, reaching forward to brush away the wet hair that fell in your face and blocked your eyes from him.

"I'm really not worth it." You mumbled shyly, looking away as he fixed your hair.

"You Strife's and your self-worth issues." He laughed, "Of course you're worth it."

He sounded so sure of himself, you had to wonder, "Why?"

"What do you mean, 'why,' isn't it obvious?"

"Not really. I've been pretty terrible to you—to everyone lately. I'm mean and I snap at you, I've been drowning in my own problems, and making people worry about me—"

"Fine, if I have to spell it out for you, I will: I like you." He said simply, then as you opened your mouth to reply with a puzzled expression, he went on before you could get your next question out, "And not just as a friend."

You could feel the heat of blood rushing to your cheeks, and knew you were probably glowing brighter than the lake right now, "B-but..."

"What, you think I go around asking Cloud out on dates every week because that's just how I show friendship?" He asked, and you put a hand on his shoulder and let yourself fall from the surface back into a standing position.

"I mean, no, but I kind of thought it had just become some running joke of yours, like you didn't really mean it."

"I'm not joking." He said, cupping your cheek so he could make you look at him, since you seemed determined to look everywhere but directly at him. When you finally did look in his eyes, still brightly illuminated by the green glowing waters, you saw a seriousness you rarely saw in him. Then, as if to further prove his point, he began to lean in slowly. When he was just inches from your face, he hesitated and looked at you as if he was waiting for you to tell him if he was allowed to kiss you or not. In a stroke of uncharacteristic boldness, you took hold of his tie and pulled him the rest of the way forward until his lips met yours.

Up until this point, you had been treading water to keep yourself afloat, but then he pulled you into his chest and wrapped an arm around you so all you really had to do was hold onto him. He began to swim backwards towards land slightly until he reached a point where his feet could touch the bottom, and suddenly things became so much easier. It was funny how much more you were able to concentrate on him when it didn't feel like you were about to sink at any moment.

Water was dripping down to your lips from your hair and eyelashes, lacing the kiss with the rather distinct flavor of lake water. You had to admit you were pretty cold, but he was still warm like an oven despite the cold water. You put your hands on his shoulders and he ran his hand through your hair to the back of your head so he could pull you closer to him and deepen the kiss.

He didn't seem distracted by everything like you were, and his soft lips moved in time with yours without hesitation. You could feel him smiling slightly, like he just wasn't able to contain his happiness that this was actually happening. You almost felt bad for needing to pull away for air. You watched, slightly out of breath, as a smile took over his face and he laughed a little to himself as he held his fingers up to his lips, still able to feel the tingle from your electric skin. He looked over at you, and you suddenly became completely mesmerized by his shining blue eyes. The glowing water was reflecting green in them, and they appeared so much brighter and more beautiful than you had ever seen them.

"Wow..." You marveled at him despite yourself, not able to keep from staring.

"What's the matter?" He asked, looking around like there must have been something else going on for you to be looking at him like that.

"It's just really...pretty."

"The face?" He gave you a smug smile, and you shoved him.

"Your eyes. It's like they're glowing."

"You like them? Take a closer look." He swam closer, leaning in with a smirk plastered on his face. "Eyes infused with Mako energy. A SOLDIER trademark." He explained, then he made a bit of a face, "Well, I'm not technically anywhere near being in SOLDIER yet, but as a sign of completing their youth training program, they gave us a little dose that's supposed to last a couple of years, until we can properly enlist."

Your insides suddenly felt like they were made of glass, and were very close to shattering at the moment. He was still smirking like he hadn't said anything out of the ordinary, but you felt yourself shrinking away from him, almost fearfully, "You have Mako energy in you?" You stepped back into the deeper part of the lake, your head dipping under the surface of the water briefly as you accidentally stepped back where your feet couldn't touch anymore and you had to tread water again, but you didn't care.

"Well...yeah, but don't worry. It's just a small, well controlled dose. Not enough to do any damage to anything. ShinRa knows what they're doing. No risk of Mako poisoning or the stigma or anything, so you can wipe that look off your face." He smiled, reaching forward and poking you in between your knitted brows, leaving a trail of water drops running down your forehead.

"You...want to be in SOLDIER?" You couldn't keep the pain and fear out of your tone.

"Yeah, I thought you knew that. I thought everyone knew." He shrugged innocently, it was pretty common knowledge that he dreamed of joining SOLDIER. In fact, you did know that about him, but you hadn't made the connection between Zack and ShinRa before just now.

"I guess...Cloud mentioned it before we met when he was telling me about you, but..." But that was before everything started happening to you. Before you knew about your stigma. You continued to shrink away from him, and he stopped coming after you, thinking that you looked like he was scaring you for whatever reason.

"Okay, what's...going on?" He gave a nervous chuckle, clearly not expecting this reaction from you. Most people probably praised him for such an honorable career choice, but you just looked so scared. He couldn't tell if you were scared for him or scared of him, either, and that made it even worse. "≈≈≈≈≈≈? What's wrong? Come on, talk to me." He made to follow you again, but something about the look on your face had him rooted to the spot.

He kept pleading eye contact despite the distance, begging you to talk to him until finally you just said it.

"I have Geostigma."

You could see something within him break as he processed what you had just said, "You...have..." He repeated in a disbelieving tone, staring at you with wide eyes. He began to connect the dots, and from his facial expressions you could pin-point the exact moment when his heart broke as he finally understood everything. Your strange pains, random bouts of isolative behavior, the reason why Cloud was so protective of you now, why you weren't sure if you could go on the trip with him, and why all of that seemed to get worse after Ven left.

It looked like he was struggling to come up with something to say, but instead of waiting for him you took in a deep breath before letting yourself slip below the surface of the water. It was painful enough having to deal with your illness hurting you and impacting your life. You didn't need to see it hurt him too.

Under water everything seemed quiet again, like there was a certain stillness down here that you couldn't find anywhere else in the world. It was cold, but it almost felt pain relieving. Your hair floated up around you, and your limbs felt pleasantly weightless as you allowed yourself to sink deeper into the lake. The glowing water and the weightless drifting sensation reminded you of your dreams of the lifestream, but in a much more peaceful way. You closed your eyes and let yourself drift in the gentle ebb and flow for as long as possible. Despite your desire to stay under longer, you were out of air and needed to resurface.

You brushed your hair out of your eyes and wiped the water drops off your face as you took in deep breaths and looked around. Zack was sitting on the shore with his knees to his chest, taking a good hard look down at his hands where they sat against his knees. You decided to swim over to him, and sat quietly beside him on the rock, letting him continue to think in silence as you rested your head against his shoulder.

"You have Geostigma." He finally said, as if trying the words he had been saying in his head out loud for the first time. You nodded, thinking you had the same problem sometimes when it came to saying it aloud.

"So now you know."

"So now I know." His voice was low and he couldn't bring himself to look at you, "I can't...I can't believe it."

"Yeah, I had a pretty hard time coming to terms with it, too. Hopefully you understand why I kept it a secret for so long. I've only known a couple of weeks, but...still."

"I get it." He said, his voice barely above a whisper. You reached over and put a hand on his to try and offer some kind of comfort. He took your hand in his and felt the electric buzz of your skin prickle against his own. "Are you in pain?" He asked, looking at your entwined hands like he couldn't believe he didn't notice there was something so sinister going on below the surface of your skin before now.

"No."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈...tell me." He met your eyes, pleading for you to let him in.

You sighed, letting your gaze fall from his face to the ground so you didn't have to look him in the eye while he was giving you that look of total pity. "Constantly." You admitted, and his grip on your hand tightened.

"Can I help you in any way?"

"Just having you next to me, knowing that you care, is enough." You said, resting your head against his arm again.

He put his arm around your shoulder and pulled you into his chest, sighing heavily, "No, it's not."

"It is. It really is." You looked up at him, hugging your arms around him. You thought it would help to give him a little bit of comfort, but he just looked at you and let out a shaky, almost wounded sounding breath.

"How did I not see it before?" He wondered out loud, now able to see so clearly the pain and fear in your eyes. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a paper that was falling apart after getting wet when he jumped into the lake after you. It took you a second to recognize what it was as he began unfolding it, but then you realized it was the trip companion form all filled out with your name, his name, and Gippal's name. He began to tear it up.

"What are you doing?" You asked, quickly putting a hand over his to stop him from ripping the paper again after he tore it in two.

"You can't go with us on the trip...You need proper healers, and someone who could—"

"I don't need you to treat me any differently." You said, taking the paper away from him.

"But how can I treat you the same knowing—"

"Zack, I didn't tell you because I wanted you to change anything."

"I can't help you; you need to be with someone who can."

"Like who?" You sighed, thinking not even Ven was really able to fully help you.

"Cloud? Or Genesis. They're both way better healers than either Gippal or I could ever be...you need—"

"Hey." You shoved him away from you so you could turn and look him in the eye properly, "You don't get to tell me what I need, Fair."

"This isn't a game, it's your life, and it needs to be in more capable hands than mine."

"Oh yeah? Too bad. Because I've already chosen my teammates." You held the paper up for him, and he took it back from you hesitantly.

"I can't promise I'll be able to take care of you."

"I'm not asking you to make that promise. If Lulu thought I was in any danger, she would have left Ven with me. All I'm asking is for you to promise you won't let this change the way you see me."

"Nothing could ever change the way I think or feel about you, I swear...but you have to promise me something too if we're going to do this."

"What is it?"

"You have to tell me what's going on with you, always. Any time there is a change, any time you start to feel sick, any time it so much as hurts. Even if it's not about the stigma. You skin your knee, I hear about it. Got it?"

"Zack—" You sighed, thinking he was already treating you differently.

"New bruise on your arm, I hear about it." He insisted, and you didn't know whether to yell at him or to laugh. Before he was begging you to be on his team, and now you had to meet his conditions to join. "Promise me. If I'm going to be the one you want to watch over you, then I need to know you're going to be upfront with me about what's going on with you. I won't see you hurt, and I will do my damndest to make sure we can keep your stigma in check, so you have to be honest with me. I need to know how you're doing, so I can get you help when you need it. That's the only way this is going to work."

You bit your cheek while examining his determined expression. It was very rare that you saw him get this serious about anything. "Alright. I promise."

He let out a deep breath he had been holding while he waited for your answer, and a smile found its way to his lips, "You don't know how happy I am to hear it. I don't think Cloud would have let me take you without some kind of reassurance that you'd be properly taken care of."

"Don't worry about Cloud...you should really be worried about whether they'll accept that torn up, wet piece of paper from you."

He laughed, "I will always be worrying about Cloud when it comes to you. And I'll get a new form. This one is just symbolic." He shrugged, putting it back in his pocket.

You then noticed he was still fully dressed—from the shoes on his feet to the tie around his neck—in his school uniform, like he didn't bother undressing at all before charging into the lake after you. You at least hoped he had the sense to take his phone out of his pocket before diving in.

"So..." You began, pulling at the shoelace of his ratty old converse and seeing that his socks underneath were soaked as well, "You'd jump fully clothed into the water for me?" You asked, and he laughed.

"Of course I would. I'd jump through fire for you."

"You're not scared of fire, but you're scared of my brother?" You raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yep. And with good reason, too." He smirked at you, then it dropped off his face almost as quickly as it came. "It's happening now, isn't it? It's hurting you..." He asked, seeing you flinch slightly at some force he couldn't quite see.

"I told you...it's constant." You let your head fall heavily against his shoulder, not quite sure if you felt comforted or irritated by his concern. You did your best to show no reaction anytime it hurt, but now that he knew what to look for it was impossible to hide it fully.

"What are they doing to help you?" He asked, running his hand through your hair absently as you rested against his arm.

"Nothing, now. Not really. Cloud's helping me sleep, Aqua is on emergency standby, and Auron is keeping in touch with Lulu, letting me know what's going on. I haven't really talked to Ven since he left, but he can't really tell me much or do anything anyway. There is no plan. There is no help." You sighed, "I'm sick, and just need to live with it unless Lulu finds something. That's it. That's the plan."

"That's a terrible plan."

"I'm aware."

He sighed now too, realizing this must be why you were so depressed about everything lately. You found out you were incredibly ill, and then told there was nothing that could be done about it. The only people who were really able to help had left, and now you were dealing with it on your own.

"I'm so sorry, ≈≈≈≈≈≈...for everything. For bothering you, for trying to make you cheer up, for—"

"For caring?" You let out a short, curt laugh, like he was being ridiculous again, "Don't apologize for that. You don't need to."

"Still, I'm just...I'm sorry this happened to you. I wish I could help. I hate seeing you look so sad."

"Hey, it's not your job to make me happy."

"Hmm...It sounds like it was, and I just got fired."

"You do more than enough. Like bringing me here, instead of letting me go home and sulk. I needed this." You said, getting to your feet and taking his arm to try and pull him up with you, "Now it's my turn to make  _you_ stop sulking."

"I'm not sulking." He said, letting you drag him to his feet and over to the water's edge.

"Oh please, I don't think I've ever seen you go without smiling for so long. It's starting to make me worry your cheek muscles are gonna atrophy from lack of use." You teased him, and he scoffed.

"Me?  _I'm_ the one who needs to smile more?" He crossed his arms and kicked some water up at you.

You raised an eyebrow and crossed your arms as well, turning your back to the water. You held out a hand and suddenly the water behind you started to rise up until it was several feet taller than you were. It was like a tidal wave just waiting to crash down on him.

"Oh shit..." He mumbled, looking up at the wall of water. He quickly put his hands in a prayer position and tilted his head to the side with a sheepish grin, trying to see if it wasn't too late to ask for forgiveness for splashing you. You just shook your head and continued to let the water rise higher and higher. He saw that you weren't going to give in so he dropped his hands and lunged at you, blitz tackle style. He grabbed you around the waist and tackled you back into the wall of water, causing you to need to let it fall so you could grab onto him as the two of you went flying into the cascading water.

As the wave fell back in with the rest of the water, there was a whirlpool effect that sent you and Zack spiraling. You lost your grip on each other, and when the spinning stopped you had to look around for a couple seconds underwater to find him. He was a few feet away upside-down and beaming at you. He was so excited he started trying to talk to you underwater as he sorted out which way was up then helped pull you to the surface.

"Oh my god, can you make this whole thing into a whirlpool?" If he was feeling a little depressed before, that certainly took care of it.

"Yeah, probably. Oh! And..." You bit your cheek as you turned around and used some ice magic to create a makeshift ice slide from one of the tall rocks. "Voila. Water slide."

He marveled at the slide for a second before turning and giving you a very serious look, "Can you make a diving board?"

"Not one you can bounce off. I can't magic up a spring." You shrugged.

"I'm calling Gippal! We're turning this into a water park."

In a few hours, when your water park was ready, you and Zack went back to school to turn in your companion ballots, then you invited people to come to the lake to celebrate the last day of school before the trip being over. Tomorrow, everyone would meet at school to find out who their groups were, and then you'd be sent to survival and skills camps for a week before being sent off to Spira. This was your last hurrah in Traverse Town, and you spent it surrounded by friends having fun in a secret place where if felt like the outside world couldn't find you.

∞

The next morning, Cloud got you out of bed and helped you get your big camping backpack downstairs. Your parents were up and had made breakfast for you guys for once, wanting to wish you a safe and fun trip. Even Leon had gotten up to see you guys off and say his goodbyes to Cloud. It was kind of a bittersweet morning. You were going to miss your parents and this house and the routine you had developed here, but you were also so excited to get underway with the trip that you were practically shaking with anticipation. After breakfast, you gave your mom and Basch some long, tight hugs and then Basch insisted on getting a few photos of you and Cloud all dressed in your hiking boots and camping packs to add to his photography collection. Zack showed up just in time to join in the photoshoot, and Tifa and Yuffie appeared just after it ended, then the five of you set off to the school together. Zack explained that Gippal was busy tweaking the Mega Tent in his garage at home and would just meet you at school.

Riku, Roxas, and Sora were already at school and sitting around on the front garden when you guys walked up. Everyone was hanging around outside in the school's entrance courtyard, and Sora told you that apparently the front doors weren't open yet when you went to sit by him. Cloud and his group walked off over to go talk to some of their friends, and Zack went looking for Gippal.

"So, you're really going with Zack and Gippal?" Riku asked, hiding the disappointment in his voice pretty well, he thought.

"Yeah, I guess they finally talked me into it." You shrugged.

"Do you know how you guys are splitting up for camp yet?" Sora asked.

"Mhm, I'm going to black magic training camp, Gippal is going to warrior training, and Zack is going to white magic training."

"Really? Zack agreed to be a white mage? Did he lose a competition to Gippal?" Sora laughed.

"No, he actually wanted to go. Seems pretty excited about it, honestly. What about you guys?"

"I'm going black magic, too." Roxas said and you sighed.

"There's just no getting rid of you, is there?" You joked, and he messed up your hair.

"Not on your life." He grinned as you swatted at his hand then returned the favor... not that there was really any point. His hair was about as messy as could be this early in the morning.

"And you guys?"

"Riku lost our footrace, so I finally get to go to warrior training!!" Sora proclaimed proudly, and you laughed.

"You beat Riku?"

"You bet your ass I did!"

"He did. Fair and square." Riku shrugged nonchalantly, and you and Roxas exchanged a quick look. You weren't sure if he was thinking what you were until he suddenly got to his feet.

"I'll be right back." Roxas said, and he began walking over towards where Zack and Gippal were standing. So he  _was_ thinking what you were.

"Wait up. Whatcha doin?" You asked, following him.

"Oh, you know. I was thinking about doing a situp, wanted to get Zack's advice." He said very sarcastically, and you took his arm to stop him.

"Roxy, what are you up to?"

"Don't worry about it. Just going to ask if he can look out for Ven at the camp." He said, and you froze.

"He's going to be there?"

"Maybe. He was there every other year. Hopefully he'll come back for it this year."

"There a reason you can't ask Riku to do it?"

"Because Riku would give me shit for missing my brother?" He shrugged.

"Fair enough. Alright, go on." You sighed, letting him continue off towards Zack. Maybe he wasn't also thinking Zack and Riku gave in and decided to go to white magic training camp because of you. Or maybe he did, but just didn't want to confront Riku about it. Either way, you returned to your seat by Sora, who was chattering away excitedly to a bored looking Riku.

Axel and Reno walked over, deeply engaged in a debate of some sort, and they only stopped their lightning fast back and forth when they got over to you.

"Sora, if you care at all about your brother, come with us." Axel said, and you and Riku exchanged a look before looking at Sora for his reaction.

Sora sat back and crossed his arms, asking simply, "Which brother?"

"Which brother?" Reno scoffed.

"Roxas!" Axel answered him, and Sora laughed in their faces.

"Yeah, okay." He said sarcastically, then turned right back to Riku to continue his conversation about how he was able to finally beat him in a race, "I think it was my lucky keychain. I forgot to take it out of my pocket before we started like I usually do."

"Why would you take out your lucky keychain before a race if it's so lucky.?" Riku asked.

"Because I didn't want anything to weigh me down ever. It's all about minimizing wind resistance."

"Oh, is it." Riku laughed, and you looked from Axel to Reno and laughed.

"Sora." You finally said, trying to return his attention to the two red heads who were glaring at him.

"What? I don't care, break his legs, shatter his kneecaps, do whatever. He probably deserves it."

"We're not gangsters and hitmen." Reno rolled his eyes.

"Then don't ask questions like one." Sora shrugged.

"He's got you there." Riku snickered.

"Whatever. We need you to help us convince Roxas '4X' is a dumbass band name." Axel tried to get things back on track.

"Oh my god, so dumb, right?" You agreed with them, thinking you had been having this argument with Roxas for days now.

"If you, ≈≈≈≈≈≈, and Riku couldn't convince him it was dumb, what makes you think I could?"

"Because you're his brother and he loves you?" Reno offered.

"Hah! Yeah, _okay_." Sora rolled his eyes and tried to keep himself from laughing at the ridiculous notion.

The doors to the school opened and Auron walked out with several papers stacked in his hands. He began pinning the papers up to the bulletin board and yelled at everyone to give him room until he was finished. When he had finally finished, everyone charged the boards to try and find their names and their teammates names on the list. You saw Zack and Gippal charge over there and knew they'd do all the looking for you in the big crowd, so you hung back with Riku as Sora rushed off.

"So.. White Magic camp?" You asked him now that it was just the two of you.

"Could be fun." He shrugged.

"Mhm." You shot him a look.

"What? Sora really did beat me in the race."

"Did you let him beat you?"

"Not important."

"Well, whatever. If Ven's there you should tell him about your dad, and about carrying the genes for Geostigma. He should be able to help you learn some specialized techniques for it."

He nodded, though you doubted if he would really do it, "Anything else you want me to tell him? Got any messages for him?"

"Nah. If he wanted to talk to me he would." You shrugged, trying not to make it sound like you really cared.

"Want me to tell him to go fuck himself for leaving?" He asked, using a light and joking tone, but you knew the only reason why he was even asking was because he knew how upset being left behind and shut out was making you.

"Now there's an idea. If you're gonna do it have someone take a video, because I want to see that."" You laughed, then Zack walked up with a toothy smile plastered to his face.

"It's official!" He said, holding out his phone for you. On the screen was a picture of the group list with your names together with Gippal's in print, with a sticker of a chocobo next to it.

"What's the sticker for?" You asked, seeing some of the names around yours didn't have the chocobo by them and others did, seemingly at random.

"People with chocobos have been cleared for independent travel." Zack said, turning the phone so he could look at it again, "I like to think Auron was the one who put all these stickers on. He seems like the kind of guy to have a secret, crafty hobby."

"If he hears you say that, we're gonna be put on probation before we're two feet out of the gummi ship." You scolded him, though you had to admit the mental image of Auron laying belly down on a fuzzy rug surrounded by sticker books did pop into your mind the second he said it.

"Scold me all you want, you're thinking it now, too. I see that little smile hiding in there." He smirked, noticing how hard you were trying not to crack up.

"Hey, if anyone's gonna get us put on probation, it's gonna be me." Gippal proclaimed as he walked over, then he leaned his elbow on Zack's shoulder and held out a paper for Zack, saying, "We're all set to go."

"What's that?" You asked, getting to your feet after seeing people were beginning to leave the school courtyard after checking the lists.

"Work assignment." Gippal said, and Zack lowered the paper so you could see. It just had your names under either white magic, black magic, or combat training.

"I'll hand this in, you guys can go to the ships." Zack said and he began to walk off to Auron, while you nodded a goodbye to Riku before following Gippal.

There were long, almost bus-like gummy ships parked on the school athletic fields, so you figured training camps must have been off world somewhere.

"So it looks like you'll be going to one of those ships, and I'll be on one of these." He said pointing to the far ships. You even saw Aqua standing in front of one of the far gummis.

"This is it, then?"

"This is it. Welcome to team kickass. Spira won't know what hit it."

"That's supposing you pass basic training." You raised an eyebrow at him, but he just waved you off.

"Please, these camps are kiddie stuff."

"If you say so. Here's hoping Zack turns out to be a decent healer."

"Hah, now there's the one you should be worrying about passing basic training." He snickered.

"Excuse you, I am more than up for the challenge." Zack said confidently as he walked up with Cloud and Tifa.

"Don't worry, I won't let him slack off." Cloud said, putting Zack in a headlock, and the two began play-fighting as Zack tried to free himself.

"Are you ready to go, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈? They're gonna want you to board soon." Tifa asked you, walking right past your big dumb boys to come over and give you a hug.

"I'm ready. Guess I'll be seeing you in a week." You said as you returned her hug.

"Don't worry, it'll fly by." She assured you.

"Where's Yuffie, anyway?" You asked as you switched from hugging Tifa to hugging Cloud as soon as he and Zack broke it up.

"She sprinted ahead to the black magic ship already. If you need to sit with anyone, you can sit with her. She'll take care of you." Cloud said as he gave you a good bone crunching squeeze.

You saw Riku, Roxas, and Sora walking down the hill over Cloud's shoulder, and smiled to yourself, "Don't worry, my bus buddy just showed up. You just try not to punch Zack out on your own flight."

"No promises." Cloud shrugged as you pulled away and turned to look at Zack and Gippal.

"At least they're headed to the medics if he does." Gippal smirked, and you turned to hug them goodbye next. They were standing almost shoulder to shoulder, so you were able to get both of them at once by getting up on your tippy toes and slinging one arm around Zack and the other around Gippal.

"I'm gonna miss you guys." You said with a strained voice as they made it a competition to see who could squeeze you tighter.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, let's go!" Roxas called to you, and you saw he was finishing up his goodbyes to his group over by the white magic ships.

"I'll see you guys soon." You said to Zack and Gippal.

"Take care of yourself."

"Kick some ass out there." They said, and with that you ran off to try and catch Riku before he got on the ship.

It might have been a bit dramatic to be going around giving hugs to everyone you knew when you were only going to be apart for a week, but you hadn't really gone a day without seeing most of them since moving to Traverse Town. You didn't care if it was just one week, you were still going to really miss them.

Roxas finally got you on the bus after another ten minutes saying goodbyes, and by then you didn't really have time to find any of your friends who were also going to black magic camp before they told everyone to sit down for take off. You found a seat, and he offered you some headphones and began playing a travel mix he had made the night before.

For the next few hours, it was just the two of you lost in your own world of music and the occasional tv show he had downloaded on his phone, until Axel finally found the two of you and joined you. You knew Kairi and Olette were supposed to be going to black magic training, but it didn't look like they made it onto the same ship as you. Or if they did, they weren't able to find you. Neither was Yuffie, but it wasn't exactly like you felt lonely with the boys. Olette probably would have been smart enough to pack a blanket and pillow, so you kind of wished she was around, but you made do by falling asleep on Roxas' shoulder.

∞

The gummi ship finally arrived at the Land of Departure, where the training camps were being held. They were all happening on the same world, since the whole place was basically just one big training ground, but they were located pretty far apart so you doubted that you'd see the other camps while you were there. When the ship landed, you were split up by gender and sent to some dormitory style cabins. You weren't happy about being split up from Roxas and Axel, but you found Olette and Kairi soon enough and set up your bunk next to theirs. Yuffie found you after dinner and moved cabins so she could take the bunk under you.

They told you all to get to bed as soon as possible, and that training would happen first thing in the morning.

You worried about falling asleep in front of other people, knowing how much you wiggled and mumbled in your sleep from the stigma dreams, but if anyone noticed they didn't say anything.

A horn blew outside in the morning to wake everyone, and you groggily sat up and rubbed your eyes. It was certainly no Cloud style wake up call with a plate of toaster waffles, but Yuffie did her best to get you up and moving to breakfast despite your sluggish zombie state of mind.

"Come on, ladies! Pep in the step! The food at these camps is always killer. I'm talking omelettes and home fries. Chop chop, or they'll run out of chocolate milk!" She said, raring to go just five minutes after waking up, and watching with a cheery smile as you struggled to get your socks on without falling asleep sitting up.

"What time is it?" Olette asked with a yawn, getting dressed at a faster pace than you were, but still noticeably groggy.

"6:30 am!"

"6:30 a-fucking-m." You repeated Yuffie's words in a dead and grumpy tone as you jammed your boot onto your foot bitterly.

"There's my sunshiny ≈≈≈≈≈≈." She beamed at you, and you grumbled something incoherent under your breath as you continued to get dressed. When you finally got up and hopped off the top bunk, you saw Kairi was putting on eyeliner in her bed while Olette sat next to her trying to brush out the knots in her hair. You thought for a brief moment about maybe trying to do something with your appearance, but decided you'd just get sweaty and gross at training anyway so there really wasn't any point. Instead, you and Yuffie headed off to the dining hall and they said they'd catch up.

After getting your food, you saw Axel's flaming red hair across the room and went over to sit with him. Roxas was there too, with the hood of his jacket pulled up over his head and headphone blaring in his ears. There was a reason you never hung out with him early in the morning. 'Not a morning person' didn't even begin to describe him.

"So, what's on the agenda for today?" Yuffie asked Axel, who was staring at the milk dropping off his spoon back into the bowl of cereal in front of him with a glazed over look.

"What?" He mumbled as he snapped out of his cereal trance after she cleared her throat.

"Do you know what we're doing today?"

"No, do you?" He shrugged, returning his gaze to the spoon since he found that more interesting than her conversation.

"Rox." You tried to get Roxas' attention, sliding the coffee you had gotten over to him. He didn't have any food in front of him, and from the sleepy bags under his eyes you wondered if maybe he was so tired he forgot to get food.

He nodded and mumbled something of a thanks before resting his chin on his palm and taking a sip. You shook your head and got to your feet again to go get the poor boy some tater tots, then ran into Aqua by the food trays.

"Morning." You said to her as you picked up a tray for Roxas, and she stopped piling fruit on her plate to turn and smile at you.

"Good morning, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. How are you doing?"

"For 6:00 am, not bad. But anyway, how does this camp work? What are we doing today?" You asked, grabbing some things you thought Roxas might like.

"After breakfast, everyone is going to meet out on the big lawn where instructors will check everyone's magic type. Then you'll be split up by element so you get the most out of training. After specialized training, there's lunch, then big group sessions that'll help round out your skill sets. But you'll be with me most of the time. Lulu has a special training program prepared for you."

"Oh, does she? Any chance she's here to teach me herself?" You asked, doing a poor job of hiding the hurt undertones in your voice.

"Not today, but maybe sometime in the next few days she'll be here. She told me she's making some real progress, so try to cheer up. It wasn't for nothing, and you weren't left behind." She gave you a sympathetic smile, and you nodded.

"Alright...well, I'll see you later then." You said once you had finished up filling the tray with food. You got yourself a replacement coffee and then returned to the table, where everyone was looking a little bit more awake after spending a few minutes with Yuffie. You told them all what Aqua had told you about the way the camp worked this year while you ate. Roxas slumped over and rested his head against your arm and struggled under the weight of the fork with every bite, but at least he was finally eating...even if he was being ridiculous.

When you all had finished eating you went out to the yard and laid down in the bright morning sun until it was time to be element typed by the instructors.

You were made to wait in lines around three tables with instructors sitting around them, and then when it was finally your turn you were given a slip of paper and a magicite stone to hold in both hands. The magicite was supposed to pull out any magic energy within you, and the paper would react to that energy. Axel went before you, and his paper burst into flames almost the moment he touched it, surprising no one, then Yuffie went and it turned out she was an air type. Or at least that's what you figured after the slip flew out of her hand and was lost to the wind. The instructor gave them some wrist bands, Axel's red and Yuffie's light green, and then Roxas went and was given a sky blue band after freezing the paper. You stepped up next, took the paper, then made to reach for the stone but the second your fingers grazed the glassy surface, the paper combusted in a swarm of sparks that created their own little shock wave. It blew the stack of paper slips off the table, ruffled and singed the tablecloth, and made your hair and the instructor's stand up on end for a brief second before you pulled your hand away with a sheepish look on your face.

"Goddamn it ≈≈≈≈≈≈." Axel mumbled under his breath, sounding exasperated with you already after two minutes of magic training commencement.

"So...what type is that?" Yuffie asked, waiting for the instructor to give you your band. The man looked more than a little shaken as he tried to get the table organized again before handing you a yellow band for lightning. You slipped it on casually, hoping not many people saw you try to blow up the testing table, then sighed as you caught Roxas rolling his eyes at you.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, just come over here. Don't worry about that." Aqua said, coming over after hearing the small explosion you caused. She probably just wanted to get you away from the general student population before you blew one of them up next.

∞

The next week was incredibly busy and hard for you, since you spent pretty much the whole day working one on one with Aqua in the various elements. Your schedule was brutal; 7:00-800 breakfast, 8:00-10:00 water and uncommon magic training (magnet, gravity, stop, barrier etc), 10:00-12:00 ice and wind training, 12:00-1:00 lunch, 1:00-3:00 fire training, 3:00-5:00 lightning, 5:00-7:00 flexibility and movement training, then finally 7:00-10:00 was your free time to hang out with everyone else. Needless to say, you were too tired to do much of anything other than sit around and talk, and even that was asking a lot from you after your day of magic work. The training program you were on had Lulu written all over it, that was for damn sure.

∞

On the sixth day of training, halfway through your flexibility session, Lulu finally showed up at the camp.

You were in the middle of holding a bridge position when suddenly Aqua stepped out of the room.

 _'Oh sure...'_  You thought bitterly, struggling to keep from getting dizzy being upside down and to keep your wrists from shaking under your weight,  _'Just leave me here all day.'_ You were about to just drop to the mat below you and lay down for a couple of seconds when Aqua returned to the room with someone behind her. You had to crane your neck awkwardly around your arm to see who it was, but then you saw Lulu. It was hard to talk upside down and contorted like you were, but that didn't stop you.

"You're finally here!!" You exclaimed, getting so excited you didn't care about holding the pose for Aqua anymore. You kicked a foot up and did a mini back-walkover to get to your feet.

"Good thing too. If your still this energetic, Aqua's clearly not working you hard enough."

"Well that's just not true." You mumbled, needing to stretch out your aching wrists before they made you do anything else.

"No back talk. Middle splits, hold for five minutes." She said crossing her arms and leaning against the wall.

"Hah, you're funny." You said, hoping desperately that she was kidding.

"It's funny that you think I'm joking." She said simply, giving you a cold look that let you know she meant business. You sighed and dropped into your middle splits as far as you could before Aqua came over and pushed you down farther.

"So nice to have you back." You said through gritted teeth as you tried to breathe through the pain.

"Ten minutes."

You mumbled something about this being cruel and unusual punishment, but Lulu just smirked and reveled in how good it felt to be back.

You got to work with Lulu in actual magic training the next day, and if you didn't know any better you would have said she looked just a little bit surprised by how much you had improved in just a few days. You were able to reflect most of the spells she threw at you, and no matter how hard she hammered away at your protect barrier she couldn't break it. Of course, you couldn't break hers either when the exercise turned to you firing spells at her, but she still seemed impressed that you got close to making her break a sweat. After a day's work with her you were more exhausted than usual, but you also felt a lot better somehow. Like just knowing she was back was enough to take some of the weight off your shoulders.

She didn't talk much about what happened in Midgar, saying a training session wasn't the time or place for that, and that if you had enough energy to be asking her about it then you should have enough to go another round on the flaming gauntlet she had set up. Finally at night, she handed you a journal before sending you off to dinner and bed, and warned you not to stay up all night reading it because you had a performance test tomorrow. You ignored her and read all through dinner, sitting at the table with all your friends but so absorbed in the journal that you didn't take in a single word that was said around you. Luckily they were used to you being too tired to really participate in dinner conversation, so no one minded too much.

You leaned against Roxas while pouring through all Lulu's notes, and he occasionally looked over to see what you were reading. It was mostly just notes she took on files she found at ShinRa, but there was also a section on the Cetra, a woman who was believed to be the last Cetra preserved in a crystal, and mako energy. The Cetra were an ancient race of people who once lived on Gaia, and it was believed that they had access to some kind of promise land on Gaia where there was supposedly unlimited mako energy. Her notes said they were wiped out by some kind of natural disaster some two thousand years ago. The ShinRa Corporation, having built its fortune on harvesting mako energy and converting it into a resource people could use, wanted to find a way to bring the Cetra race back in the hopes of being led to the promise land so they could exploit the unlimited mako supply. For ShinRa, unlimited access to mako energy was basically like having self-printing money. The last Cetra ever found was a half-fossilized woman preserved in a large crystal far in the northernmost part of the continent, who had been stuck in a comatose state for two thousand years. There was no way to wake her, but some of her cells were still alive, so ShinRa began experiments implanting her cells into humans. The side effect of Cetra cell implantation was the pure strain of Geostigma. There was clearly some interaction between mako energy and the regular strain of the stigma, so there must have also been a link between the Cetra and mako energy. There was an unsettling note in the journal that said Cetra DNA causing the stigma was a positive sign for ShinRa, showing that the Cetra were undeniably linked in a close way to mako energy and therefore the 'promise land' really existed.

The next section of the journal was Lulu documenting what happened with Ven. It was short and didn't give you a clear picture of the specifics, but when they got to Midgar he met with an ex-ShinRa scientist named Dr. Hojo, who took him away for three days for some kind of testing and an experimental trial that would hopefully allow Ven greater control over Vanitas by sealing him away in such a way that he couldn't come to the surface and take over Ven's body. There was no description of how they did this, or how successful they were even though they closely monitored him for days after the experimental trial, but she at least made a note that he was alright afterwards and seemed like his usual self.

"What's going on, ≈≈≈≈≈≈? You've been looking at that page for like 30 minutes." Roxas finally said, seeing you kept flipping back to the page talking about Cetra cell injections into humans.

"It's nothing...Lulu's research notes. It's hard to understand, that's all." You said, clapping the book shut and pushing it away from you slightly. You didn't like the implications, and decided you didn't want to read it anymore.

"Did she come up with anything useful? Anything cure related or...?" He trailed off, hoping you knew he was really asking if her trip was worthwhile and would mean she could help you.

While the Cetra cell implantation was new information, there was nothing--or at least nothing you could understand or make out through some of the more complicated scientific reports--about reversing the side effects or getting rid of the unwanted cells. "Hard to say. I don't really understand all of it, but it doesn't look like there's an immediate cure. She said the trip was definitely necessary, though, so hopefully she got something out of it that I'm just not seeing." You shrugged, and he made to reach for the journal to try and read it himself. You put your hand over it and got to your feet, quickly saying "I should probably get this back to her."

"Can I just see it for a second?" He laughed to hide his irritation as you shook your head, "≈≈≈≈≈≈, come on. It's me."

"Sorry, I've got to go." You held the journal close to your chest and hurried out of the room. You didn't want anyone to see this...to see that you were the result of some ShinRa experiment, or that you might not even be fully human. No one could know about this. Not even Roxas.

You were going to go back to your cabin and hide the journal in your stuff, when someone who looked like one of the camp instructors came up to you.

"Are you ≈≈≈≈≈≈ Strife?" He asked and you nodded. He didn't offer his name and you couldn't really see his face in the darkness so you didn't recognize him, but he wasn't wearing an element band so you knew he wasn't a student.

"I am...What's this about?" You asked while you tried to figure out what to do with the journal to make it look like it was just something you were casually carrying around.

"We wanted to give you your progress examination early. Please, come with me."

∞

You were lead to a series of tents set up on the main yard where individual examinations would be held tomorrow. It was a little confusing that you would be tested now, but then again you kind of got special treatment the whole week. It was hell and it was hard, but it was still technically special treatment. Maybe this was the same?

The instructor held open the door flap of the tent for you and you stepped inside, but he didn't follow you in. Instead, he closed the flap and then zipped it up behind you. If that wasn't weird enough, when you turned around it was just you and a man sitting behind the examiners table with a few things around him that were probably used in the ability test, like some candles, a bowl of water, and wind chimes. But that wasn't the weird part, it was the man.

He was frankly very handsome with his sharp jaw, broad shoulders, and intense gaze. He had pale skin, bright aqua blue eyes with a green ring around the pupils, and long silver hair pulled into a neat braid behind his back. He kinda looked like an older version of Riku to you, to be honest...though that might just have been because he had silver hair. Still, the eyes were what really reminded you of Riku. He was looking at you so intently, as if he was studying you. Whatever it was he was looking for, he must have found it, because he smiled to himself as he began writing something down. You tried to see what he was writing, but he was just too far away for you to really see anything. You noticed he was left handed and using a red pen, but that was about it.

"So, you're ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. I've heard so much about you." He said, his voice hitting you like cold water.

"Good things, I hope...you haven't been talking to Lulu, right?" You said nervously, feeling too anxious to shut up. You didn't know what was going on, but you felt very weird right now.

"I hear you're quite gifted. I wanted to put your skills to the test."

"Alright. What do you want me to do?" You asked, tucking the journal under one arm and looking around at all the different things in the room you could do magic on.

"Let's start small; freeze this." He said, moving the bowl of water to the centre of the table. You walked over and dipped your pointer finger in the bowl, and it began to freeze over.

"That's it?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No points for style, right? You just want to see what I can do." You shrugged, thinking there was no need to go overboard if it was just a silly practical examination to see if you were competent in the elements. You were. There was no need to show off.

"Impress me."

Or maybe there was.

You shot him a look, more confused than ever by this examination, but decided to take him up on the challenge all the same. You pulled your hand out of the ice and forced it to turn back into water before picking the bowl up and holding it with both hands. You jerked the bowl so all the water would splash out at him, but froze it in the air before any of it could get on him. You set the bowl down on the table, and it kind of looked like an abstract ice sculpture was coming out of the bowl now.

"Good. Very good." He said, his sly smile growing as he pushed the candle forward next. You were going to have to get creative to keep impressing him, but part of you almost enjoyed the challenge.

He tested you on every element, and even went into more challenging and obscure magic ones like flares, poison, and gravity.

"Is that everything?" You asked, starting to feel drained after such a long day of training and now this bizarre and tricky examination.

"One last thing. Your reflexes..." He began, getting to his feet.

"My reflexes?" You mumbled, not sure what he was on about as he raised an arm and pointed at you. "What are you—!" You gasped and threw up a protective barrier around yourself as he hurled some kind of magic at you. You couldn't even tell what it was it went by so fast. You felt the blurry orb of what looked like black fire hit your shield, and your knees buckled under the force of it. The barrier held, but you had never felt an impact like that in your life. Barriers were pretty much kept in place by the will of the caster, and wouldn't break until you did. It was a very strange and uncomfortable feeling to have your will attacked directly like that with such force, like a kick to the head but on the inside. You had to blink several times to recenter your focus on him as he shot another orb at you. You dug your heels into the ground and clenched your jaw, forcing the barrier to be as strong as you could make it before the orb collided with you. As the fiery projectile broke against the barrier, you caught sight of him about to fire another round at you in rapid succession. You still weren't over the last blow, and knew this one would shatter the barrier. That wasn't something you wanted to feel. Normally, it felt kind of good to bounce something off the barrier, like you were able to completely reject another person's attack, but this was different. You were holding on for dear life to keep it from breaking, and his attacks were still physically painful to you even when they did bounce off.

You couldn't risk taking another hit, so you broke the barrier yourself and set up a quick reflect screen in front of yourself. You were blown backwards onto your ass and rolled a few times until your back sank into the cloth of the tent, but as the smoke from the orb exploded and light of the reflect spell cleared you saw him standing there, not a hair out of place.

"My, my. All that power, yet all I see is a frightened child. Your skills are latent." He said, his tone as calm and icy as ever. He began to walk away, passing you and saying, "You're not ready yet."

"Ready for what? Who are you?" You demanded, getting to your feet as he left the tent. You hurried after him, throwing back the cloth doorway of the tent to try and follow him, but he was gone. "What the fuck?" You wondered aloud to yourself, looking around the area but seeing nothing.

"Yo, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, what are you doing?" Axel called out to you. He and Roxas were on their way back to their cabin across the field, and stopped when they spotted you.

You wondered if you should tell them, but it was so weird no one would believe you, "Nothing, go to bed." You called back, deciding to keep that strange encounter to yourself. Maybe it was all just some very elaborate fever dream you were having...that would certainly make more sense than what just randomly happened. But if it was just some hallucination, why did your head hurt so much from blocking his attacks?

"You first, sweetheart." He scoffed, and you rolled your eyes.

"That's what I'm doing." You called back to him as you went back into the tent to retrieve the journal. It was still lying on the floor where you dropped it after throwing up the barrier so suddenly.

"Doesn't look like it." Axel said, crossing his arms and watching skeptically as you came back outside.

"Get your eyes checked." You shrugged, walking over to them and continuing on the path to the cabins with them.

"Whatcha got there? Is that your diary?" Axel asked, getting a smirk you didn't care for on his face as you joined him.

"Yeah, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, is that your diary?" Roxas echoed, giving you a meaningful look.

"Don't be a dick, Roxas. Doesn't suit you." You ignored his look completely.

"But it suits me?" Axel checked you with his shoulder, causing you to teeter off the path a step or two before you rammed him right back.

"Yes."

The turn to the girl's cabins came up, and you had to go your separate way from them after saying some quick goodnights and wishing them luck on their skill examinations tomorrow. You got ready for bed and climbed into your bunk with the journal, thinking you might give the more complicated passages another look to see if you couldn't figure out more. You opened it to the front page, and saw something had been written in it in red ink.

 _'Thanks for the intel.'_ Was written in elegant handwriting, and smeared ever so slightly like it was written by a lefty.

"Well. Shit..."


	13. Chapter 13

** Chocobo Buck Hunters: **

**(this chapter's pretty light on the bucks since the last one had so many trivia questions, but here you go!)**

**•Find the hidden refrences for: SAO Abridged, Dragon Age, Star Wars, Orange is the New black, Rick and Morty, iZombie, Malcolm in the Middle, Boy Meets World, Archer (and possibly more that I forgot to write down) $2 each**

**•Tell me on a scale from pterodactyl noises to tears of literal joy how psyched you were to see the new KH3 trailer that dropped showing the new world. I, personally, went up and down that scale from one end to the other then back around six times while watching, then both at once when I saw the release date (year) had been set.  $2 bucks**

∞

Chapter 13

∞

Ven arrived to the White Magic training camp shortly after dinner had started, so he was hoping to be able to slip into his bunk in the instructors’ tent without anyone seeing him since dinner was still going on. 

“Ven! Holy shit, when did you get in?” Cloud asked, rushing over to the sleepy looking blond the moment he saw him walking by. Ven sighed, thinking he should have tried harder to sneak past the dining tent. It was just his luck to get spotted immediately.

“Hey, Venny Bear! Where’ve you been hiding all day?” Zack asked, following right behind Cloud. The two caught up with him before he could duck away and pretend he hadn’t heard them. 

“The ship just dropped me off a few minutes ago...Zack? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be swinging a sword over your head and working on your battle cries?” Ven had to admit he was mildly surprised to see him there, unless, “Did you lose a bet with Gippal? Is that why you’re here?” 

“Nope. I’m here for ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈.” He explained, like that reasoning should be self-evident. 

“She...sent you to beat me up for her, or...?” Ven trailed off, not aware that Zack knew about your Geostigma. 

“No, but it’s good that you at least know it was shitty of you to leave.” Zack said, and Ven sighed heavily. 

“I know it was shitty. I didn’t want to go. It’s not like I did it for kicks.” 

“Did you find what you were looking for?” Cloud asked, looking Ven over carefully. Nothing seemed all that different about him, to be honest. He looked a little more tired and had bigger bags under his eyes than usual, but other than that he was pretty much the same. Besides, he always looked tired, so that wasn't exactly groundbreaking news. 

“Here’s hoping.” He shrugged, playing with the wristband on his left forearm absently as he wondered if it was still too soon to tell if Hojo’s little experiment would have any lasting postive effects.

“Well, you’ll be working tomorrow, right? Give us at least one day’s training with you on stigma specific work?” Cloud asked, and Ven blinked, feeling very confused. 

“Stigma specific work?” He shot a quick glance over at Zack before returning his eyes to Cloud with a meaningful look, “Why the sudden interest in stigma treatments?”

“Oh, drop the act, Venny boy. I know, okay? She told me.” Zack rolled his eyes at the frankly pretty obvious way he was trying to dance around the subject. He thought it was a wonder he didn’t figure out there was something wrong with you sooner, considering how careless and clumsy Cloud and Ven could be with your secret.  

“She did…?” He mumbled, trying to figure out what would compel you to tell Zack. So far, the only ones you had told about your stigma openly were your family, your best friend, and Riku when you needed to explain why you couldn’t go back home that one night. Zack wasn’t exactly in the top rung of your most trusted confidants, or so he thought. 

“Yeah. She told me a couple days after you left, when we were deciding to team up for Spira.”

Maybe the fact you told Zack after Ven had left was a sign that you felt your support net was crashing down around you, and you needed to let more people in to try and hold it up. If that was the case… He shuddered as a sudden pang of guilt swept over him, and he felt like he had to ask, “How is ≈≈≈≈≈≈, anyway?” 

“Hanging in there.” Cloud answered simply, and he nodded. That was probably the best he would get out of them. Cloud wasn't exactly known for being super chatty, and Zack probably didn't know enough, or at least know enough for long enough, to have anything useful to tell him. 

“Alright, well...I’ll see you guys tomorrow. We can go over some stuff then, I’m too tired now.” 

“Yeah, you look beat. Get some sleep.” Zack nodded, thinking it was more than just a little obvious he was dead tired. 

“We’ll see you tomorrow.” Cloud added, and then they finally let him get back to walking off to bed. 

Once he was inside his bunk, and realized he was alone in there with all the other instructors and staff members off supervising dinner,  he decided to call Lulu to tell her he made it to camp alright. He pulled out his phone and noted with a bit of an empty feeling that there were no new messages or missed calls from you. He ignored all this and pulled up Lulu’s contact information briefly before hitting the call button. 

“ _ Hello?”  _ Aqua answered the phone. 

“Hey, is Lu around?” He asked, rubbing his eyes and forcing himself to sit cross legged in bed. He desperately wanted to get off the phone and pass out in bed, but he knew she'd be pissed if he didn't check in. 

“ _ Haven’t seen her in a while. She went off to dinner after finishing up with ≈≈≈≈≈≈’s training.” _

“Okay. Will you tell her I got in alright, and so far everything is going well.” 

“ _ I’ll tell her. Hey, how are you? From what Lulu has told me, treatment can’t have been easy for you.”  _ Aqua asked in a gentle tone.

“It's nice that you still worry about me, but you know I'm always alright.” He replied, pulling off the wristband and flipping his arm so that he could see the underside of his left wrist. There was a white gauze bandage circled around his wrist which he began to undo, only to find that the gauze had fused with the fresh scabs underneath it from the mark that had been left on him as a result of the treatment. He had to slowly pull and peel off the gauze to get it off, tearing open the fresh cuts despite his best effort to be gentle, knowing he needed to clean them and rewrap his wrist before going to bed. His skin was still red and irritated where Lulu had carved a sealing glyph into his wrist per Dr. Hojo’s instructions. It was itchy, inflamed, and sore, and peeling the gauze off only made it hurt worse, but if he wanted the sealing spell to have full effect he wasn't allowed to heal it with magic. Part of the treatment was designed to seal away Vanitas to a part of Ven’s heart where he wouldn't be able to get out and take control, and the other part was designed to slow the spread of the cell infection caused by Geostigma. The slowing agent was injected into his bloodstream directly several times over the past few days, then finally Hojo had Lulu coat a small scalpel in the slowing agent before cutting the sealing glyph into his wrist, hoping that the two would help each other function. Hojo couldn't work the magic the sealing spell required himself, so Lulu was forced to carve into him instead. 

It had been fairly traumatic to be strapped down and cut on, but now at least it was healing. He was worried that it wouldn't without the use of his magic, but slowly and surely the redness was going away with each passing day. He would have an intricate scar when it was healed, and the slowing agent had left a kind of strange iridescent shimmer along the lines of the cuts. When he moved his wrist around under the light, it seemed like the lines almost had a green glow about them. Maybe it was just the contrast caused from all the redness, but to him it seemed like it was definitely glowing green. 

“ _ It's okay not to be okay, Ventus. I'm here if you want to talk to me. About anything. Ever.”  _ It was kind of nice to hear a voice that sounded like it cared for him. Lulu loved him, he knew, but she was always so cold and callus all the time that it was hard to see it sometimes. Hojo certainly didn't care about him, that much was clear. It had been a tough two weeks, he thought as he returned the wristband to its rightful place on his left arm, covering the scar of the glyph completely. 

“What do you want me to say?” He asked,  thinking he was at such a loss for words when it came to describing what the trip to Midgar was like that it was almost laughable. 

_ “Whatever you want. Just let me know that you're really doing alright. Should I tell ≈≈≈≈≈≈ you're back and want to talk to her? Maybe it’ll be easier for you to talk to her.”  _

“Has she said anything about me?” 

_ “She hasn't said anything, but I know she misses you.” _

He took that to mean you were either so upset with him for leaving that you didn't want to talk to him, or you were doing alright with your stigma without him, and didn't need to talk to him because you didn't need him anymore. His heart sank. 

“Just...tell her that I'm fine if she ever asks, and that she doesn't need to worry..” 

“ _ You should call her, and tell her that yourself.”  _

“She….” he sighed, “she doesn't want to talk to me.” 

_ “That's not the impression I got.”  _

“Yeah, okay. Maybe I will give her a call. Thanks, Aqua.” He said, thinking maybe there was a glimmer of hope for the two of you yet. 

_ “Get some rest, you hopeless sleepyhead.”  _

He smiled, “The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?” 

_ “It's always like that with you, Ventus. Call her.” _

“I will. Take care, Aqua.” 

_ “Call her _ .” 

She hung up the phone, and Ven was left smiling at the screen. If Aqua was so insistent that he should call you, maybe she knew something he didn't. 

He pulled up your contact information next, and felt suddenly incredibly nervous as he hit the call button. 

The line kept ringing, and the smile dropped from his face with each silence that followed. You weren't going to answer. 

_ “Hey, it's ≈≈≈≈≈≈! Leave it at the beep _ !” 

He thought he'd be happy the next time he heard your voice. ‘Guess not.’ He thought, realizing that it had gone to voicemail too quickly for it to have happened naturally. You must have seen his name on the screen and ended the call. 

∞

In the girls’ dorm, everyone was just starting to get ready for bed after returning from dinner. Kairi and Olette had been chatting absently as they changed into their pajamas, when Kairi heard a phone vibrating nearby. 

“You hear that?” She asked Olette, who shrugged culelessly. 

“Hear what?” She asked, too busy brushing out her hair to notice anything. 

Kairi got to her feet to investigate, and deduced that the buzzing was coming from either your bunk or Yuffie’s. She put her hand on your bed and could feel the buzzing through the mattress, so she began feeling around the sheets for your phone. Sure enough, it was lost between the sheets and the top blanket. She pulled it out and saw the name ‘Ven Rostar’ on the top of the screen, with a picture of the two of you sitting on a couch in a house she didn’t recognize. It must have been your house, she thought, seeing Zack’s shoulder was clipped out of frame on Ven’s left, and Cloud was clipped out on your right. She found herself frowning, wondering how it was that you just happened to be very best friends with every goddamn person in town, and in a moment of bitter jealousy she hit the end call button. Of course, as soon as she did she saw all the other notifications you had, including the last text you had gotten which was from Riku. He was just asking how your day was, but she suddenly felt like crying again. He hadn’t asked her about her day in months. Hell, he hadn’t even texted her in months and barely spoke to her. Even Sora started responding to her messages less and less frequently. Why were you so damn special?

“Kairi?” Olette called out to her, noticing that she had been standing in front of your bunk staring at a phone with a sour look on her face. 

“Oh, sorry. ≈≈≈≈≈≈’s mom called her.” She said casually, clearing all your notification before setting your phone back on your bed. 

“Where is ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ anyways?” Olette wondered, returning her attention to her hair. 

“Who knows?” Kairi sighed, shrinking back into her own bunk, wondering what it was that made her act like this around you. She didn’t really think herself the jealous type, but she just couldn’t explain why she got so bitter and impulsive whenever you came up. She didn’t even dislike you, really, but there was just something about you that drove her crazy.     

“Hey, why the long face, Kai?” Yuffie asked as she walked up with her toothbrush and face wash, returning from her bathroom trip. 

“No reason. Any idea where ≈≈≈≈≈≈ is?” She asked, trying to change the subject. 

“Are you kidding me? We’d need to keep her on a leash at all times if we wanted to keep track of her.” Yuffie smirked. It was kinda true. You had a habit of flitting around all the time to different conversations and different people. It was hard to say where you were at any given moment to those who weren’t immediately with you. 

∞

Meanwhile, you were off by the boys dorm. 

“Roxy!” You called in through the window of the tent the boys’ dorm was in. You knew it was his dorm, but you didn't see him inside anywhere. “Roxas!” You called a little bit louder, getting the attention of some of the guys in the tent, but none of them knew you or where Roxas was, so no one bothered answering you. 

As soon as you saw what was left in the journal after your strange encounter with that fake instructor, you dropped everything to go and find Roxas. You needed to tell someone, but you couldn't find him anywhere. 

“You know,” a sing-song voice called out to you from somewhere inside. You saw Axel lean down from the top bunk of one of the beds, looking right at you, “you never come for any social calls with me. Hurts my manly feelings.” 

“Aw, all two of them?” You sassed him, and he smirked and hopped out of bed so he could saunter over to the window and taunt you some more. 

“Well that's not fair. I can be very sensitive when I need to be.” He shrugged, opening the window and leaning on his elbows so he could look down on you nice and smugly. You returned his smile with a smirk of your own, knowing he was just playing with you like always. 

“Where's Roxas?” 

“Who's asking?” 

You shot him a dry look, “I am.” 

“But it's after curfew. For you to be asking him to come out and play at this hour...that's just breaking the rules.” 

“I won't tell if you don't.” 

“Oooo, must be something important.” 

“Axel...where's Roxas?” 

“What's in it for me? I'm a tit-for-tat kind of guy.” 

You scoffed and put a hand on your hip, “I'm not showing you my boobs.” 

“That is  _ not  _ what that expression means, but good to know.” He laughed. 

“ _ Axel………. _ where is—”

“He's in the shower.” He shook his head at you, “Man, you are no fun sometimes.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but if you hadn't noticed I'm kind of freaking out here!” You tried to keep your voice quiet as you snapped at him, but you were still so freaked out by the whole journal/fake instructor ordeal that it was kind of hard to keep calm. 

“Alright, keep it together.” He held his hands up innocently, to show that he wasn't going to toy with you anymore, “Maybe I can help.” He offered, putting his hands on the windowsill for support before hopping up and out to join you outside the tent. 

“That's alright, you don't need to trouble yourself with my bullshit.” You tried, but he was already landing on the grass beside you as you said it. 

“I'm already here. Gimme a chance, I'm an excellent stand in for Roxas in a pinch.” He smirked, and you ran a hand through your hair as you tried to think what you could tell him that wouldn't give away your secret, but would also help you get to the bottom of things. 

“Okay, so you saw me reading that journal at dinner right?” You asked, and he nodded. 

“Yeah, you were so absorbed in it you didn’t see Yuffie chuck her pudding at me. Must have been some book.” He ran a hand through his still slightly damp hair from his own shower a few minutes ago, where he had to shampoo his hair twice to make sure he got all the chocolate pudding out.

“It was. Lulu gave me one of her journals, and it had some pretty sensitive information in it she probably wouldn’t want getting out.” 

“Like her love affair with Auron?” 

“What? No.” 

”Love affair with a student?” 

“No!” 

“Love affair with — ”

“No love affairs! What’s wrong with you?” You rolled your eyes, thinking about smacking him upside the head, “It was just her notes on some magic she gave me to read, but there were some pages on her old research projects from her days at ShinRa.” 

“Oooo, ShinRa secrets? What kind of secrets?” 

“I couldn’t tell you. They were written in her own little shorthand code most of the time, and too scientific to really follow, but still, to someone smarter it might mean something.” 

“Okay, so is that what’s got you freaked out? Your mentor might have some shady ShinRa dealings in her past?” 

“No, what’s freaking me out is that someone might be after her. When I was walking back to the girl’s dorm, this guy stopped me and made me go into one of the testing tents where this other guy distracted me by pretending to give me the skills evaluation. I think they went through the journal during all that, and then before leaving they put a note in the journal saying ‘thanks for the intel,’ like it was all a big set up and I fell for it.” 

“Holy shit, seriously?” 

“Yeah! I’m freaking the fuck out. What if those guys are hunting Lulu, and I just gave them a good chunk of her research?” 

“What did they look like? What did they do to you? Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” It was frankly kind of strange to see how seriously he was taking you, but you appreciated it. 

“No, but I get the feeling they were just playing with me. They knew my name and everything.” You sighed, thinking it couldn't have just been a weird coincidence, “When you and Roxas came walking by, you didn't see anyone around, right?” 

“No, sorry. We came around the bend and saw you standing there alone. Why didn't you say anything when we were walking back?” 

“It sounds crazy, I didn't think you'd believe me. But I'm getting really stressed out thinking about it, so I needed to tell someone.” You shrugged, and he bit his cheek as he tried to come up with what he should say. 

“Well, maybe they're still around. We could try looking for them.” He said, beginning to walk with you back into the examination tents to try and see if they were hanging around or maybe left something behind. 

“I don't know, I doubt it. It's like they vanished into thin air. I don't know what to do. I'm...kind of scared, though.” You confided in him, thinking maybe he wasn't such a bad stand in for Roxas after all when he was taking things seriously. You began leading the way to the specific testing tent you had been taken to, even if you suspected you wouldn't find anything. 

“Don't be. Lulu can take care of herself, and no one here is going to let anything happen to you. It'd be pretty stupid to attack a camp full of black mages.”

“Most of us are just kids who couldn't make a breeze by blowing.” You mumbled, and he laughed. 

“Maybe that's true, but I'm not. And you're not either. I’d like to see them try and go through the both of us.”

“The problem is how easy it was for them to get me alone. If they wanted to, they could have done some real damage.” 

“Well, I've got your back. So don't worry, no one is sneaking up on you or getting you away from the group any time soon.” He said definitively, with all the confidence in the world. It was hard not to believe him. 

“Seriously? No jokes or morally questionable statements?” 

“Would it help if I said I’m mostly watching your back because I like the view?” 

“Ha, now that's more like it.” You laughed, trying to enjoy having some fun while it lasted as the examination tent came into view. 

“You know, I get the feeling Cloud painted some icky, douchey picture of me in your head that's making you think I'm some unrelenting flirt. I'm really not. Don't get me wrong, I do love a good flirt, but I'm also a pretty reliable friend when you need one.” 

“Well, you're good friends with Roxas, right? And Zack and Gippal. That's good enough for me. Cloud doesn’t really like anyone, so don’t take it personally.” You said as the two of you walked up to the examination tent. It didn’t look like anything had happened in there, and there was no sign of the two men around either. The two of you circled the tent, checked out the inside, and even gave the surrounding tents a once over before deciding there wasn't anything there. “I think we’re wasting our time here.” 

“Yeah, probably, but it was worth taking a look. You don't seem reassured, but at least we know they're gone.” 

“Do we know that? Are they gone, or are they just not right here anymore?” 

“Either way, there's no sense in worrying yourself sick about it. Let's get you to bed.” He sighed, thinking he wished there was more he could do to put your mind to rest, but the men were gone and there really wasn't anything left behind to go on. 

“Yeah, alright...will you walk me back?” You asked, tucking your hair behind your ear unconsciously as you did so. 

“‘Course. It would ruin the bonding session if I just left your sorry ass out in the cold.” He smirked at you, and you scoffed before laughing. 

“I think calling it a bonding session ruined it, but whatever.” 

He laughed and hooked an arm around  your neck as he lead the way back toward the dorms, “Oh come on, what else am I supposed to call a midnight jaunt through the camp grounds in search of rogue ShinRa personnel?” 

“My anxiety getting the better of your helpful nature?” You offered with a slightly bitter tone, and he rolled his eyes. 

“Just let this be a nice jaunt between friends..” 

“Stop saying jaunt.” 

“I bet Roxas never takes you on midnight jaunts.” 

“Oh my god.” 

“C’mon, jaunt with me!” He gave your shoulder a squeeze and tried to make you get a little pep in your step as you walked back. 

“You’re doing this on purpose.” You did your best to glare at him while he beamed at you. 

“Alright, now skip!” He pushed you forward and you laughed. 

“Seriously?” 

“No, sarcastically.” He rolled his eyes, then pushed you again .  “Start skipping!” He said, causing you to laugh even harder as he began to skip himself. You knew what he was doing. He was trying to force you to take your mind off things by making you be silly with him. “If you don’t start skipping with me, I swear to god, I will kick your ass.” 

You sighed and decided that just because you knew what he was doing didn’t mean you shouldn’t go along with it. You started skipping, laughing as you did, trying to remember the last time you had done this. It was honestly pretty fun. Axel took your hand and started trying to make you jump higher with each skip, and you threw out a zero gravity spell once your skips became synchronized with his. Your next bounce sent the two of you flying into the air and you had to grip his arm to keep from getting separated and to keep from turning upside down in the air. 

The spell didn't last long, but floating through the air even for a brief couple of seconds felt amazing. Gravity returned and you were forced from your weightless drift back to solid ground. 

“Now why didn't they teach me any of that kind of magic?” Axel wondered with a smirk after he landed beside you. 

“You'd abuse it?” You shrugged. 

“You're damn right I would. I would never walk anywhere again.”

“They're cool spells, but they kind of kick your ass. Doing more than like two in an hour will have you crawling to bed on hands and knees.” You said, rolling your shoulders back a few times to try and resist the fatigue washing over you. 

“Good thing we're almost to bed then, because you're doing that again.” He gave you a look like he was daring you to do it again, and you returned his smirk and held out your hand for him so you could start skipping again . “That’s my girl!” He exclaimed as he linked arms with you, and you took off again, preparing to let loose another gravity spell. 

 

When you were done playing around, Axel had to practically carry you into the girls’ dorms. It felt like you had done a workout that was just a little bit too intense and you were shaky and almost hollow feeling. He slung one of your arms over his shoulder to help you walk, which was a bit dramatic, you thought, but you still appreciated it. He wasn’t allowed in the dorm, so you had to say your goodnights at the door of the tent. 

“Goodnight, Axel. You know, you really do make a good stand in for Roxas.”   

“You sayin’ I’m best friend material?” He grinned, and you rolled your eyes. 

“You’re good for a jaunt. Don’t get cocky.” 

“You’ll just have to sneak away again sometime, see some of my other talents.” 

“Like skipping.”

“If you like my skipping, you should see my frolicking.” 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈! There you are!” Yuffie hopped out of her bed and came over to the doorway, “Axel, stop flirting and let her get in here before they come for bed checks.” 

“Who’s flirting? We’re just talking.” Axel shrugged innocently. 

“Yeah, uh-huh. Sure.” Yuffie eyed him, putting a hand on your shoulder and pulling you inside. 

“Night.” He called after you as you made for your bed. 

“See you tomorrow.” You replied, hopping up onto the top bunk and flopping down, completely exhausted. Yuffie chatted with Axel some more while you settled into bed and pulled out your phone to give it one last check before putting it away for the night. There were no new notifications, so you plugged it in and rolled over to go to sleep. 

“Night guys.” You said to Kairi and Olette. 

“Goodnight.” Olette said, barely looking up from the book she was reading. 

“Yeah...goodnight.” Kairi mumbled, watching you closely from the bottom bunk across from yours. You didn’t seem to notice she had done anything to your phone, and that almost made her feel worse. Like she was hyper-analyzing every single interaction you had with anyone else, but you just rolled with whatever came your way. Nobody sent you anything, so you just put the phone down and went to sleep. Meanwhile she sat there staring at hers, willing for someone — anyone — to send her something. Yuffie came back over and started yapping about something or another to Olette since she was the only one who was listening, so Kairi decided it was time for her to turn over and go to sleep herself since she didn’t feel much like talking.   

∞

The next morning, you woke up to the horn blaring outside the large tent for the last time. After today, you would be reunited with Zack and Gippal, and sent on your way to Spira. Aqua warned you at the very beginning of camp that if you didn’t pass your Black Magic competency examination you would be held back at the camp to train until you could...but that really wasn’t a concern for you. You were far more worried about the journal, but you decided to just rip out the page that got written on and not tell Lulu about it if you could avoid it. You had breakfast then a short morning session with Lulu before you were called in for your exam. A tough and battle worn, yet somehow still warm looking man introduced himself as Master Eraqus before telling you he knew who you were, knew you were Lulu’s student, and wanted you to give this examination your all. He explained that they already knew you were competent in almost all forms of Black Magic, but also wanted to test the scope of your abilities. That was fine by you, because you already had some practice trying to impress a ruthless examiner. It was almost funny; in a lot of ways Eraqus was more difficult to impress than the imposter from last night. He made you do things to demonstrate control, like time you as you tried to burn a fresh candle stick all the way down by making the flame as hot as you could without making it any bigger. 

At any rate, you finished your examination with top marks and were sent off to lunch with the others who had finished. Then you had to pack up and get on a bus that would drive you to the camp where the warriors were training and the gummi ships were stashed. 

 

The bus was much less comfortable than the gummi you flew to the Land of Departure in, but you did your best to make do. Roxas was your bus buddy again, but this time Axel and Yuffie found you and sat behind you, so you couldn't just tune out and listen to Roxas’ music the whole time. It was nice to have people to chat to during the ride though, and certainly helped to pass the time. 

In just a few hours, the bus pulled up to a field that was pretty much full of lines of gummi ships as far as the eye could see. They were tiny, compact ships compared to the standard ship you were used to flying in, but that was probably the point. They were only meant for three people, after all. 

 

The bus let you out, then you had to wait in line for someone to tell you which ship was yours….that is until you heard Gippal start hollering for you over by what you assumed was your ship. You looked at Cid, who was trying to ignore Gippal and get everyone checked in to the proper ship in the order they appeared in line, but Gippal was just too loud to ignore. He started blowing the horn of the ship and flashing the lights, and finally Cid got fed up and made eye contact with you before jerking his head over to Gippal as a way to tell you to just go. 

“So unfair.” Roxas scoffed as you adjusted the big camping backpack you had on your shoulders in preparation to leave the line. 

“Here's hoping Reno is his usual obnoxious self and gets me out early, too.” Axel added and you rolled your eyes at them. 

“You act like I'm not going to have to sit in the same ship as him for 8 hours. You think he's annoying now, just wait until he gets bored.” 

“A bored Gippal is a dangerous Gippal.” Axel nodded, and Roxas sighed. 

“I’d still take Gippal over Sora.” 

“You were the one who picked your partners.” You laughed at his sour expression. 

“Did I? Can you  _ really  _ call it choice when you're just stuck with your twin for all eternity?” 

“Oh my god, me too…” Axel mumbled in realization, and you raised an eyebrow and looked between the two of them.

“Yeah, okay...I’ll just leave you two to your mutual identity crises and head on over to my ship.” 

“Whatever. Twin problems. You wouldn't understand.” Axel said as you began to walk off. 

“You're right, I don't. Weirdos.” You brushed them off with a sideways look. 

“See you in Spira.” Roxas called after you, and you turned back to nod at him briefly before finding Gippal waiting on the ramp of a ship for you. 

“Hey, there's my baby! How'd training go?” He asked as you walked up, catching you in a one armed hug as you tried to walk past him onto the ship. He took your backpack off your shoulder as he pulled away from the hug and slung it over his own before leading you inside. 

“Total cake walk. You?” You asked, trying to keep focused on the conversation as you caught your first glimpse of your ship. It seemed much bigger on the inside than you would have expected, with three pilot’s chairs set up in front of a large glass window with control panels in front of them. There was a mini-fridge, a small bathroom with a shower, and a back room with three closets. The walls had little grippy slots that could be pulled out and would open into a bed, and you saw that Gippal had already claimed the bottom left bed. You didn't know if Zack was a top bunk or a bottom bunk kind of guy, but you liked having the top bunk so you took the one over Gippal’s bed and left the top and bottom bunks on the right of the room for Zack to choose from. 

“Easy peasy. Any idea when Zack’ll get here? I'm dying to get going already. I got our whole first day planned and everything.” Gippal said, and you could tell he was getting antsy by the way he was bouncing his foot as he watched you walk around the ship. 

“No idea. I thought you'd know.” You shrugged, beginning to unpack some things like your shower stuff and some clothes you didn't mind having in the closet. Gippal claimed the middle closet, so you took the one on the far left. 

“Great...well, I'll just get back to sitting on my ass then.” He sighed heavily as he walked back out to the pilot's room and fell heavily into the middle chair. 

“Hey, it's what you're good at.” You shot back and he gave you a look. 

“Wow, you're really starting to fit in here.” 

“Thanks.” 

“That wasn't a compliment.” He smirked and you shot him a lazy glare over your shoulder as you continued to unpack. 

 

After around 45 minutes of unpacking then snacking with Gippal, you finally got sick of just waiting around and went for a walk to find other people you knew. You decided to try and find where Roxas went, thinking it might be nice to see Sora before heading off, or maybe find out which ship was Tifa, Yuffie, and Cloud’s. You had no idea what the ship assignment protocol or layout was, so you just kind of wandered around for a bit before you finally found someone you knew. You walked between two gummi ships, then saw Riku walking up on your right. He broke into a smile at the sight of you, but tried to brush it off as a smirk when you walked over. 

“Well, would you look who it is. Guess they didn’t flunk you out of training for blowing things up on your first day.” He said as he walked up.

“And just how do you know about that?” You sighed, remembering nearly blowing up the element typing table when you touched some magicite just minutes after training officially started. 

“What, you think you get to nearly explode a teacher out in broad daylight without anyone talking about it?” He smirked at you. 

“Roxas?” You raised an eyebrow. 

“Who else?” He laughed, beginning to lead the way to his gummi ship. Or at least, that’s where you assumed he was going as you followed along beside him. 

“Whatever. So, does all this big talk mean you’ve graduated White Magic training with a shiny gold star on your record?”

“No, all this big talk is me trying to cover up how shitty I am at healing.” 

“Ha, seriously? You’re bad at something?”

“Shut up. We all knew I wouldn’t be great at it. We just didn’t know I’d be quite as bad at it as I am.” 

“Our golden boy, slacking off? I never thought I’d see the day.” 

“Alright, have your fun.” He brushed your comment off casually, like he really wasn’t that bothered by sucking at White Magic. 

“What’s the matter, can’t heal your pride?”

“No, but when I finally snap and deck you, I can heal that. Probably.” 

“Win-win for everyone.” You grinned and he rolled his eyes at you, “So, you learn anything useful?” 

“Not really. Some shields and stuff. Cure spells, poison and burn treatments. The usual first aid 101 kind of stuff. Ven only just showed up last night, so we had a short little session with him this morning on stigma specific stuff, but other than that, nothing super pertinent.” 

“Same with Lulu. I guess they just got back from Midgar. So...did he teach you any nice little tricks for me?” You asked, getting a cheeky smile and holding out your hand for him to do any little medcheck or healing trick he might have learned. 

He took your hand in both of his and made a contemplative face, then shook his head before saying, “I got nothing. You’re way above my pay grade.” 

“Seriously?” You rolled your eyes. 

“Well, you could probably use more protein.” He said as he looped his fingers around your wrist then dinged your wrist around in the empty space between his fingers and your skin. 

“Just you wait, I’m gonna be eating the same things as Zack and Gippal for the next few months. I’ll come back to Traverse Town 6’3 and built like an ox.” You said as you yanked your wrist free from his loose grasp. 

“Have you ever seen how many push ups and squats Zack does in a day? I thought I went overboard, but goddamn.“ 

“Biceps the size of melons don’t come cheap, Riku. You’re gonna have to work a little bit harder to turn those oranges into cantaloupes.” You smirked, pinching the sleeve of his shirt and lifting it up so you could see the nicely toned muscles of his arm. Of course, you were just teasing him and everyone knew he was plenty muscular, but he still got defensive and swatted you away.    

“Oranges? ≈≈≈≈≈≈ please, these are at least grapefruits.”

“My, my. Someone thinks highly of himself.”   
“Actually, why don't you keep you mouth shut until you can bring more than grapes to the party?” 

“Weak arms, strong personality. That's my M.O.” 

“Just keep telling yourself that.”

“Sounds like you want a push up competition.” You shot him a challenging look and he scoffed. 

“Yeah, okay. Any day, any place. I'll take you down.” 

“Just so you know, I can turn gravity off with my mind, but okay. You’re on.” 

“Oh...well that makes it a little less fair.” He mumbled, and you stepped closer to him so you could try and compare your arm to his to see if you stood any kind of chance. You just ended up laughing. 

“Actually, I think it would probably just even the odds out a bit. You'd still probably win. I'll just have to send Zack in my place. That way I'd win Fair and square.” You smirked at your play on words and he glared at you. “Speaking of, where is he?” You ignored his irritation completely. 

“I dunno. He got on a different bus than I did. He and Cloud were some of the last to go through the proficiency testing since Ven made them stay back longer.” 

“He didn't make you stay back?” 

“It was more important for them to learn stigma magic than me, I guess. It’s probably because Zack will be spending more time with you and Cloud gets the family pass.” 

“But you might actually have it, why didn’t—oh...you didn't tell Ven that, did you?” 

“Nope.” 

“Riku—” 

“Hey, look. There's my ship.” He changed the subject, gesturing with his head at the gummi ship a few rows over where Roxas and Sora were sitting on the ramp. 

“Smooth. Real smooth.” You glared at him for changing the subject, but he just shrugged, “Is Ven on that bus, too?” 

“How should I know?” 

“Wow. You’re kind of the worst, you know that? Super unhelpful.” 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈! Riku!” Sora hopped to his feet at the sight of the two of you walking over. Roxas rolled his eyes as Sora rushed over for hugs. He threw his arms around Riku first, who sighed and gave him some lazy, half-hearted pats on the back. 

“Sora, it’s only been a week.” Riku shook his head as Sora squeezed him. 

“I still missed you guys.” Sora ignored him as he pulled away from Riku and moved over to you. 

“Aw, we missed you too.” You said, returning his hug and burying your face in the crook of his shoulder, causing him to laugh and kink his neck as your eyelashes tickled his skin. He was just so warm, and such a good hugger, you couldn’t help yourself but to snuggle in. He didn’t mind, aside from the tickling, and even leaned back as he squeezed you harder so your feet came off the ground.  

“You’re so embarrassing.” Roxas grumbled from his seat on the ramp, his voice muffled slightly from the fact he was leaning his chin on his hand while he was talking. 

“You’re just jealous I get all the good hugs.” Sora smirked, letting go of you and giving his brother a smug look. 

“I don’t need to hug either of them. I’ve been with ≈≈≈≈≈ all week, and well...who actually missed having Riku around?” Roxas said, and Riku blinked dryly at him before hitting him with his backpack as he walked passed him into the ship. 

“You guys mind if I take a peek at your ship?” You asked, looking at Sora. He nodded and held out an arm like he was welcoming you aboard. You followed the ramp up into the ship and were slightly surprised to see that despite being exactly the same as your ship, Sora had already hung decorations and posters around the room. You laughed as you walked into the back room and saw Sora’s chocobo blanket contrasting to Roxas’ edge lord plain black blanket. 

“Who hurt you growing up, Rox? I mean really?” You asked, seeing that even Riku pulled out a pale blue blanket to throw over the bunk the twins left him. You even snuck over to get a feel of Riku’s blanket, knowing his fondness for soft and fuzzy fabrics. 

“Why did you have to let her on the ship?” Roxas asked as he settled into one of the pilot’s chairs. 

“Because, I need her opinion on something.” Sora said, taking you by the arm and pulling you back into the front of the ship. He positioned you in front of a large blank wall and had you stand there while he brought out his backpack and dug around for something. “You’re a girl, so you should know: is it too early for me to start hanging Christmas decorations?” 

He pulled out a bag of Christmas lights and brightly colored tinsel, and Riku face palmed while Roxas muttered something under his breath that sounded to you like, “He has one bag to fill for three months, and he uses half of it for tinsel.” 

“Yeah. I mean, it’s early October, but it’s never too early for Christmas.” You said. 

“That’s what I thought. I wanted to do something for Halloween and Thanksgiving, but I just didn’t have the storage room.” 

“And mom expects me to be able to keep him alive…” Roxas shook his head.

“Riku, you wanna help me hang these lights?” Sora asked.

“Fat chance.” Riku scoffed, leaning in the open doorway that led to the back room.  

“Oh, you know what? I bet the lights would look awesome if we hung them from the bunk above Riku’s.” You said, trying to walk past Riku into the bedroom, but he put an arm out to stop you from getting through the doorway. 

“How about you go back to your own ship?” He shot you a look. 

“I’ll go when I’m good and ready.” You shot back, and then as if on cue, your phone went off. You smiled as you saw Zack’s name pop up on the screen with a message that read,  _ “And just where did you get off to?”       _

“You good and ready yet?” He raised an eyebrow at you, and you hid your smile long enough to glare at him. 

“You got lucky, punk.”

“Just go, asshole.” He shook his head at you.

“See you losers in Spira. Bye Sora.” You said, walking over to give Sora a goodbye hug before walking out the door. Riku and Roxas exchanged a look as you walked right past them, then they both glared at Sora as he started smugly laughing at them. 

 

You got back to your own ship and found the ramp was up so you couldn’t get on board. You tried knocking on the metal door, but no one answered. 

“Oh, guys! Come on. This is no time for pranks!” You complained, seeing that other ships were beginning to take off around you. You were about to pull out your phone and call them, when you heard mechanical whirring coming from the ramp. You had to backpedal away from the ship as the ramp began to lower and extend almost directly over your head, then you just had to cross your arms and wait for it to finish descending. 

“It is always time for pranks.” Gippal said with a smirk when the ramp was finally all the way down and revealed that he had been standing on the other side the whole time .  “Besides, I have it on good authority that this should be familiar to you. Like deja vu.”

“It’s not.” You shrugged. 

“Really? No vague memories of gummi ship ramps and a handsome blond stranger?” He wiggled his eyebrows at you and you glanced around like you were waiting for something to pop out and suddenly make all of this make sense.  

“Is this a bit?” You asked cluelessly. 

“Alright, come out. She’s not getting it.” Gippal sighed, stepping aside to reveal Zack leaning against the doorway with a small smirk plastered to his face. He was wearing a faded orange hoodie, and at the sight of you his amused expression melted into a totally sincere smile, like he was just genuinely happy to see you. 

“What’s going on?” You asked, still totally confused by whatever stunt they were pulling, but your tone softened considerably as you got completely sucked in by his big blue eyes when they landed on you.  

“Remember Midgar?” Zack asked, standing up straight and walking down the ramp towards you. You had to think for a minute as you tried to connect the dots, then you smiled as you finally understood what they were up to. They were recreating the first time you met Zack. 

“You big softy.” You laughed and shook your head at him as you met him halfway up the ramp and basically fell into him for a hug. 

“I’m a romantic, you know that.” He gave a content sigh as he returned the hug. 

“Oop, Cloud alert.” Gippal interrupted the moment, and Zack looked over your shoulder to see that, sure enough, Cloud was walking over with Tifa. They didn’t know if he was coming over to see you off, or if he was coming over because their ship was nearby, but either way they didn’t want to stick around to find out. Zack bent down enough that he could grab you by the waist and throw you over his shoulder while Gippal rushed inside to shut the ramp and get things prepped for takeoff as quickly as possible.  

“Wh–Zack! Put me down!” You complained as he hurried into the ship with you. 

“And let Captain Buzzkill ruin everything? No, thanks.” Zack laughed, dumping you into a pilot’s chair, “If he gets on board, he’s just gonna yell at us to restore all gummi controls to their default settings, make you go for a med check, and he’s probably gonna call Mr. Strife and have him yell at us about ground rules for being around you again.”

“Again?” You asked with a laugh as Zack went around to various panels of buttons and began the launch sequence while Gippal fell into the middle pilot’s chair and began messing around with the controls.  

“It was horrible. It sounded like a lecture, but felt more like being threatened for two hours straight. All ‘No inappropriate physical contact, no inappropriate visual contact, no peer pressuring or getting you into dangerous situations...shower frequently,’ I mean, the man is unreasonable.” Gippal said, hitting a few buttons on the main control console before taking the steering wheel. The ship lurched into the air, and suddenly red lights started flashing all around the room. 

A voice came over an intercom system you didn’t even realize was there,  _ “You bunch of damned, wily, weasel-faced, chocobo-brained, otter _ —”

“You got a point there Cid, or just having a nice rant?” Gippal interrupted the heavily accented voice and hit a few switches that stopped all the red flashing lights. 

_ “You have  _ **_not_ ** _ been cleared for take off, chowderheads!!”  _ Cid bellowed, but by now the ship was already in the air and leaving the world’s atmosphere.  

“Oh come on, old man. We’ve been doing your take off sequencing for you for years now. We know what we’re doing.” Zack said, still standing over by one of the wall panels. As best you could tell, he was working the navigation system.

_“Not the point, potato brain!_ _There’s protocol to_ —” 

Gippal must have had some kind of intercom kill switch, because the connection ended and Cid never got to finish chewing the boys out, “Boring conversation anyway.” Gippal sighed. 

“And just like that we’re on probation.” You sighed.  __

“Don’t pretend like you didn’t see that coming sooner or later.” Zack laughed as he took his seat to the right of Gippal.   

“Besides, Cid won’t put us on probation for this. It was a clean take off, just a bit premature. He knows we know how to fly this baby.” Gippal gave the control panel he was working on a few pats for good measure. 

“Takes a lot more than that to get blacklisted on your first day.” Zack added. 

“Like not making it to the drop zone...did you put in those coordinates I gave you?” Gippal asked hopefully. 

“I did, and we’re gonna hit warp drive early, just to make sure we get there with plenty of time.” 

“Perfect.” Gippal smirked, but you looked between the two of them worriedly. 

“Wait, we’re _ trying _ to miss the landing zone?” 

“No...well, I mean, yeah. But, like, I have a landing zone of my own that I wanna hit first. So, we get there early, get things set up, meet at the proper landing zone, then off we go. Shouldn’t get into any trouble at all.” 

You looked at Gippal for a moment, then shot Zack a look, “So this blacklist...it’s not really as bad as it sounds, right?”

“Nah, it’s a slap on the wrist. Trust me, it’s nothing.”  

“Relax guys, I know what I’m doing.” Gippal said confidently. 

“That is the biggest lie I’ve ever heard.” Zack mumbled, and you weren’t sure if you felt like laughing or hanging your head. You really hadn’t thought picking them as teammates through properly. Meanwhile, Gippal shook his head at your lack of faith. 

Zack’s phone began to ring, and he sighed heavily before he answered it, “Yellow?” 

You could distinctly hear Cloud yelling at him clearly from where you were sitting on the other side of Gippal. 

“Relax, I’ve got it covered…” Zack paused, and you heard angry grumbling but couldn’t make out any words, “Who needs him? Come on, it’ll be fine. ≈≈≈≈≈≈, tell him it’ll be fine.” Zack turned on the speakerphone and held it out for you. 

“What’ll be fine?” You asked, now that Cloud could tell you himself what he was calling about. 

_ “You were supposed to see a medical examiner before taking off.”  _

“Ah.” You scratched your cheek. Lulu might have mentioned wanting to see you before you left, “Whatever, I’ll just get checked when we land.” 

_ “Does Gippal even know?”    _

“Know what?” Gippal asked, caught in the middle of the conversation anyway as Zack held the phone right in front of him in an attempt to get it closer to you. 

“I mean, does Gippal really  _ know  _ anything?” Zack chuckled, trying to ease the tension Cloud’s tone was bringing into the ship. 

“Hey Gips, I have geostigma.” You said casually, like it was just some passing comment that meant nothing. 

“Sick. Are you at the bleeding goo stage yet?” Gippal asked, sounding only mildly curious about it at best.

“Not yet, but I’ll keep you posted.” 

“Sweet.” 

“Happy, Cloud?” You asked sarcastically. . 

_ “...Not particularly…”  _

“Good. Wouldn’t want you to pull a muscle by smiling for once.” Zack said, and you knew exactly what face Cloud was making as you heard a distinct scoff that was always accompanied by an eye roll. 

“Don’t worry. We’re all on the same page, and everything’s fine. And if it stops being fine, I’ll get help. You just worry about yourself. We all know you get gummi motion sickness. How about you go report to medical for that?” 

“ _ Don’t get cute with me, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. And Zack...take care of her, okay? I’m counting on you.”  _

“Nothing to worry about. I’m on it.” 

_ “I mean it. You let her get hurt, or you hurt her _ — _ you even so much as hurt her feelings _ — _ you are fucking dead.”  _

“I’m starting to think Cloud wants you to take this seriously, Zack.” Gippal said and Zack laughed. 

“Not gonna happen.” 

“ _ Zack.”  _

“I mean the hurting thing isn’t going to happen. I already am taking this seriously.” Zack explained, realizing how that might have been misinterpreted. 

“C’mon Cloud. Give it a rest. We’ve got this covered. Really.” You sighed, thinking he was as bad as your parents. Even worse, actually, since he knew Zack and Gippal so well. 

_ “Alright, fine. I’m trusting you guys. No shenanigans or rebelling against the government or whatever it is Gippal likes to do for fun.” _

“Oh please, Cloud. Give me some credit, I like the government. They do a nice job delivering the mail and making sure I don’t eat poison.” 

_ “How can that possibly be true? You’re a ruthlessly brutal thug.” _

“I have my moods.” He shrugged casually. 

“Don’t you have your own ship to launch right about now?” Zack asked, getting tired of this conversation already. 

_ “Whatever. See you in Spira.” _ He finally gave up and decided this was just the way things were now, and there really wasn’t much sense in trying to hover over you or control everything you did since you were just as bad as the two boys you were partnered with. 

“Race you.” Zack said with a cheeky smile, then Cloud groaned and hung up the phone. 

“You guys have some nerve antagonizing Cloudy like that.” Gippal said, shaking his head at the two of you slightly. 

“Says the guy who just did a manual override on Cid’s launch codes for an early take off.” Zack mumbled. 

“So, how long until we get there anyway?” You asked, staring out at the big black sky behind the window. The ship was moving too fast for you to be able to see any stars or gas clouds distinctly, so it was actually kind of boring to look outside.

“With our early warp? Seven hours.” Gippal said, glancing over to check the navigation panel to double check.

“Aw, seriously?” You groaned and sank deeper into your chair, “We can’t shave that down a little?”

“We’re already shaving around an hour off, that’s the best we can do with this model of gummi ship.” Zack sighed.

“These ships are flying baskets of crap compared to your standard edition, fully automatic gummi model. Oh, if they put me behind the wheel of an SR-71 blackbird—hey! ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈? Where are you going?” 

You got up in the middle of Gippal’s rant to go hang out in the back room and maybe nap a little or meditate and stretch to make Lulu and Aqua happy. It wasn’t like you didn’t have plenty of time to kill.  

∞ 

Eventually, everyone stopped chatting and messing around on the ship and you all just got to doing your own thing quietly. Gippal and Zack switched off who was at the helm a few times, but Zack would always end up getting bored after a while and would need to get up and move around. Riku wasn’t kidding when he said Zack did a lot of squats and push ups, either. Every time Zack started getting restless, he’d find a quiet corner of the ship and crack out a workout. And he was restless a lot. Gippal, on the other hand, apparently got to be his size from non-stop eating. Every time you went into the front room you caught him snacking on something new. It would be a miracle if there was anything left by the time you got to Spira.      

You had been in and out of naps, watched some shows and a movie, took a shower, and finally you were just hanging out in your bunk trying to towel dry your hair as best you could while re-reading Lulu’s journal. Zack was hanging by his knees from the railing of the top bunk across from yours doing some exhausting looking sit ups. 

“Why don’t you chill out a little? Take a nap, maybe?” You finally felt the need to speak up after watching him do a couple sets of ten. Not that you minded the view or anything, but you were starting to get a little worried about how much he was working out and if he was going to make himself sore or pull a muscle.   

“No...can do.” He said, not slowing down his pace in the slightest as he spoke to you, though the effort he was exerting was clear in his voice, “Too...excited.” 

“You’re gonna tucker yourself out before we even get there.”

“Why are you complaining about that?” Gippal scoffed from the front room, able to hear your conversation clearly since the door was wide open, “A tuckered Zack is better than a hyper Zack. Trust me.” 

“Same...goes for...him.” Zack shot back, then he must have hit the number of reps he wanted, because he stopped and just let himself hang upside down for a few seconds while he tried to catch his breath. His shirt had fallen down to his chin with gravity, and he used it to wipe his forehead while he took this little break, “What about you, ≈≈≈≈≈? Should we be worried you’ve been sleeping all this time? We’re gonna get there pretty late, so you’ll just be going to bed in a few hours right after we land.” 

“Not a problem. I’m always ready for bed.” You said through a yawn, closing the journal and stretching your neck to try and work out the kinks you put in it from looking down for so long. The ship suddenly lurched and shook a little, causing Zack to fall from where he was hanging off the top bunk and go crashing to the hard metal floor. “Gippal! What the hell was that?” You half-yelled at him as you jumped down from your bunk to check on Zack. 

“We just dropped out of warp drive. Sorry, shoulda warned you.” He said sheepishly, turning around in his pilot’s chair just long enough to make sure Zack didn’t land on his head and die. He didn’t, and the two of you were shooting him heated glares, so Gippal turned back around and pretended like nothing happened. 

Zack landed on his shoulder and did a pretty ungraceful roll off it and onto his side when you came over and pulled him up to a seated position. 

“You okay?” You asked, kneeling beside him as he sighed heavily and held a hand over his shoulder before rolling it forwards a couple of times. 

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’ll probably just get a big bruise, but that’s okay. I’m gonna go punch Gippal so we match.” 

“Aw, you guys are cute.” You laughed, rolling up the sleeve of his t-shirt and coating your hand in some ice magic before pressing it over the red mark that was already forming on his shoulder. 

“Cute? Like a chocobo playing the piano ‘cute’ or like by saying cute you actually mean ‘my, what a handsome and charming fellow, I should just go on a date with him because he seems real swell’?” He asked hopefully, trying to straighten himself out by pulling his shirt down all the way and running a hand through his hair.. 

“It’s cute that you think I think that.” You shrugged, and he puffed his hair out of his eyes before giving you dry look. You just ignored him and asked, “Hey, you were at White Magic training all week, right? Why don’t you show me what you got, and take care of that before you get a bruise?” 

He smirked and had you take your hand away before replacing it with his own. His hand gave off a soft white glow for a few moments, then he removed his hand to reveal a completely normal looking shoulder. No redness, no swelling, no bruise. 

“Consider me impressed.” You raised an eyebrow at him as you got to your feet and offered him a hand up. 

“I told you, I’m taking this seriously. Ven taught me all kinds of stuff for you, from sleeping spells to ‘≈≈≈≈≈≈ says she’s fine but she’s not, and here’s how to check’ spells.” He explained as he took your hand and stood up. 

You tried not to roll your eyes as you imagined the face Ven must have been making when he said that, “Well, aren’t I lucky to have you guys?” Your sarcasm was pretty undeniable, but he just kept smiling at you. 

“Guys, landing in T-30 minutes.” Gippal said, and Zack couldn’t contain his excitement. 

“Sweet! I’m gonna hit the shower before we land!” Zack said before dashing off to  the bathroom, probably wanting to rinse off and change after all the exercise he’d been doing. 

You used this opportunity alone in the back room to change out of your comfortable traveling clothes into some leggings, a light shirt, and your hiking boots after asking Gippal what kind of weather you should be expecting and he replied it would be pretty mild. He warned you that you guys would be taking off just as soon as the teachers were done with their little orientation and heading for a warmer climate, so you packed your bag full of shorts, tank tops, and a bathing suit in the hopes that he was taking you to a beach. You finished packing and went out to sit by Gippal so you could watch as the ship neared the small blue planet. 

“Take the helm for a sec, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. I gotta go pack.” Gippal said, hopping up out of his seat and stretching his back until it cracked before heading to the backroom. 

“Wait, what?” You asked, horrified as you jumped seats to replace him behind the wheel, “I don’t know how to fly the ship!” You panicked, holding the main steering controls and trying to keep the ship flying exactly as it was. 

“Don’t worry, I put it on auto pilot. Just sit there and look like you know what you’re doing...and if you see an asteroid coming at us, swerve.” He instructed, and you hummed an anxious ‘mhmm’ as your eyes scanned out the front window for anything that might get in your way. 

The bathroom door opened and Zack walked out in a cloud of floral scented steam. 

“Goddamn it, Zack. You big shampoo thief.” You sighed, not even needing to look back at him to know exactly what that smell was. 

“What? I didn’t have time to unpack all my stuff yet.” He shrugged making for the back room. 

“You’ve had 8 hours!” You tried not to be too annoyed with him before even touching down on the new world, thinking you had the next three months to be irritated by your boys, but they were just so damn exasperating all the time. 

“I was busy.” He called back with a laugh. You heard him start chatting with Gippal a little, then a few minutes later he returned to the room dressed in some sweatpants and back in his hoodie with a heavy looking backpack slung over one shoulder, and your bag over the other. He set the bags by the door, then leaned on the chair to look over your shoulder at how you were doing as the pilot. “Look at that, you’re a natural.” He grinned as you veered slightly to the left to avoid something then got the ship back on course. 

“I’m just saying, if we suddenly crash and die, blame Gippal,” You mumbled uncomfortably, doing your best but still slightly afraid death was right around the corner. 

“Want me to take over?” He asked, and you slid out of the seat to let him have it before leaning on the back of the chair like he had just been doing. You tried to ignore how nice Zack smelled now that he had dried his hair a little and put on his usual cologne as you leaned over to watch what he was doing on the control panel. 

He hit a few switches to take the ship off autopilot, and brought up a navigation screen that showed a little display ship with two lines, one on each side of the ship. It looked like he was just trying to keep the display ship between the lines, and that’s how navigation worked. 

You asked him if that’s what he was doing, and he laughed. 

“More or less.” He shrugged, then he looked back at you briefly with a smile before returning his gaze to the road...sky. “Hey, c’mere. I’ll teach you.” He sat back as far as he could in the pilot’s chair and gave his knee a pat, and you came around to sit in his lap with a small laugh and a roll of your eyes. You put your hands on the steering wheel, and noticed that this time it wasn’t moving automatically to keep the ship on course, and it was up to you make little adjustments left and right to keep the ship between the lines on the navigation screen. Zack put a hand over yours and began to tilt the wheel over to the left, then pointed out on the nav screen the arrow you should be following to land where Gippal wanted you to land, explaining how a few other things worked as well, like the thrusters and the wing extensions. 

“Did they teach everyone how to fly these ships like this?” You finally asked after his little lesson ended. 

“Nah, they do a little two hour seminar at the end of warrior camp training on how to work the autopilot and how to take off and land. That’s about all the knowhow you need on these trips. You just lucked out and scored two gummi engineers for teammates.” 

“Speaking of, how are we looking?” Gippal asked, coming out of the back room and dropping his stuff by the door before taking a seat in what had been Zack’s chair to the right of the middle. 

“Tall, tan, and ready for bed?” You offered as you checked his appearance, noticing he was also in sweats and a t-shirt. Gippal shot you a look, like that was  _ not _ what he was asking, but in all fairness to you, the three of you looked like you were all dressed in jammies that barely passed for street clothes.  

“An hour ahead of schedule, on the nose.” Zack answered him, smirking slightly from behind you. He had been a little worried how well you would get on with Gippal constantly trying to annoy you, but it looked like you were content with annoying him right back at any given opportunity. You’d fit in just fine with them. 

∞

Eventually you moved over into your chair so the boys could land the ship properly, and you marveled at the sight of entering Spira’s atmosphere. Hopping from the never ending black of space into a world of color was something you would never get used to. The ship entered a rose colored sunset sky, with orange clouds reflecting off a glittering ocean below. You were supposed to stay in your seat during the landing, but you couldn’t help yourself. It was just so beautiful. You were up on your feet and standing with your nose pressed to the glass of the window just minutes after breaking through the atmosphere. 

“Hey, come over here.” Zack said, getting to his feet as well and walking over to the ladder that led to the small, sealed off roof area of the ship. You watched curiously as he climbed up there, wondering if he could even get the door open since it didn’t seem like school would want you kids going up there, but he punched in some code on the door’s control panel, and you heard the click of something unlocking. It was kind of like a submarine door, where he had to put some of that muscle to good use to pry the wheel locking the door into motion before he could push it open, but once he got it open he gave you a smirk and waved you over before climbing out of the ship. You could barely contain your excitement as you followed him up the ladder and let him help you get to your feet out on the small deck. It was a circle deck, maybe 10 feet across, with railing to hold onto, but you really weren’t focusing on that. Your attention had been completely stolen by your first view of Spira. 

The ocean spanned the horizon, with a few islands coming into view after a few minutes of flying, and warm air flew through your hair. Maybe it was just the sunset light, but it seemed like Spira was just brighter and more colorful than any other world you had ever been to. The ship descended slowly, so there was really no real danger, but all the same you held onto the rail.

“This is amazing!” You beamed at Zack, holding a hand up to keep your hair from smacking you in the face when you turned against the wind. 

“We made it.” He returned your smile, putting an arm around you before turning back out to get his first glimpse of the main continent. It was fast approaching on the horizon, and looked so different from how you were picturing it. There was a large city on the coast with a massive blitzball arena, followed by rolling plains that were littered with ancient looking ruins. The further you flew, the more the landscape began to change from grassy landscapes to rocky terrain and sandy beaches. 

The ship slowed considerably, and Gippal started taking it down for landing near a large structure that looked like it was a temple carved right into the face of a rocky mountain. You knew the building within the rock structure was called Djose Temple from the big history worksheet you had to do, but it was completely different to be seeing it in person. 

“Whoa…” You marveled quietly, leaning back against Zack slightly as the ship began to make its final descent so you didn’t even have to hold on, and could just trust that he was holding onto you well enough that nothing would happen to you. 

“You know, I’ve never actually been to Spira. I mean, Gippal comes back here every summer and for some holidays, but this is my first time here. It’s not what I was expecting at all.” Zack said, though to be honest you weren’t really listening to him. You were busy watching the people rushing around outside the temple, tending the machines that were out front like they were being put away for the day or something. All of the men who were out seemed to be Al Bhed as best you could tell, or at least they were all very tan and very blonde. 

“Is this where he’s from?” You asked, wondering if maybe Gippal wanted to stop by his old home before joining with the rest of the school or something. 

“Nah, he’s from the desert. Beakanel, or something.”

“Bikanel Island?” You asked with a laugh, and he shrugged. 

“He always calls it the desert, I don’t know.” 

The ship shook a little as it finally came to a stop and began to lower to the ground, and you held onto the railing while Zack held onto you until the shaking stopped. 

“Let’s go, get down here!” Gippal called shortly after, and you shot Zack an excited look before making for the ladder and hurrying down into the ship. By the time you got down there Gippal was over by the door, preparing the ramp for deployment. You reached to grab your backpack, but he stopped you by saying, “Leave it, this is just a small detour.” 

The ramp lowered, and Gippal lead the way out with a clear destination in mind while you and Zack trailed behind him slowly, taking in everything you could. Gippal began speaking quickly in Al Bhed to a guy who came over, and the best you could tell he was asking if Gippal had a parking permit. 

“I think he’s saying we’re not allowed to leave the ship here.” You translated to Zack, who, despite knowing Gippal for over a decade, never bothered to learn any Al Bhed. You picked it up pretty well in just a few months, at least, “And Gippal is explaining that we’ll only be here a few minutes. Did he tell you what we’re doing here?” You asked, and he shook his head. 

“No idea. But he seems like he’s got a plan, right?” 

“I mean, yeah, but knowing Gippal...that could mean anything. Okay, so he's asking that guy if the...something sign up is still open?” You were trying your hardest to focus on both Gippal’s conversation and yours with Zack, and worried you might have misheard something in Al Bhed. But, sure enough, the man said he'd make an allowance for Gippal and led him over to a small structure set up outside of the temple. 

“Hey, why don't you guys check out the temple?” Gippal suggested, turning back for a brief second to wave the two of you off while he finished up with his business...whatever that business was. You looked at Zack and the two of you exchanged a small shrug before heading over to the grand doorway leading into the temple. It was pretty dark inside, with just the glow from candles, and oddly enough, raw exposed lines of electricity running down the walls to light the place. It was pretty late, so maybe this wasn't the full effect you were supposed to get from the temple, but it was pretty imposing all lit up by sparks and flames. It was honestly a little surreal feeling inside the temple, like the air was heavier and the energy was nothing at all like it had been outside. 

“So who are all these dudes? Gods? Saints?” Zack asked, looking at all the carved statues lining the walls as you spun around slowly to take it all in. There were rows after rows of stone figures lining the rafters, except at the front of the room where there were two much larger statues and a set of stairs leading up to an antechamber. 

“Did you just hand in that history packet blank?” You laughed, and he got a cheeky grin as he rubbed the back of his neck. 

“Gippal might have done the whole thing for me.” 

You shook your head, then went on to explain, “Those two up there? That lady is the first summoner, and that dude is the founder of the Spiran religion. Yu Yevon, or something. And then these guys are all summoners who completed the pilgrimage.” 

“The what now?” 

“Seriously?” You shot him a look and he smirked at you.

“My smart little cookie.” He caught you in a headlock and jostled your hair around to bully you affectionately. You knew he admired how much better at school you were than he was, and liked that you were generally smarter than most everyone else in your friend circles, but right now he was just doing it to flatter you and you knew it. 

“Zack! Not in front of the dead guys!” You complained, trying to free yourself. 

“But why is there an Al Bhed outpost by a temple? The Al Bhed hate all things Yevon...and Yevon kinda hates them, too.” Zack wondered, still bullying you, but much less actively now that he was thinking. 

“Hey, wheel 1 and wheel 2, let's go. We're outta here.” Gippal called and you shot him a look as you tried to figure out his new nicknames for you. 

“Aww he thinks he's third wheeling.” Zack laughed. 

“Ys E fnuhk? (Am I wrong?)” Gippal put a hand on his hip as he watched you try and wiggle out of Zack's headlock again. 

“To be fair, you're the one who ditched us.” You shot back, finally prying your way out of Zack’s grip and walking over to Gippal.

“Okay, maybe I did a little bit. But you'll be thanking me in a second because I just got us — drum roll please,” he paused for dramatic effect before pulling out three key cards. He handed one to you when you walked over, and he tossed the other to Zack so he didn't have to wait for him to walk over as well. 

The card was written in Al Bhed, but you understood most of it, “Bikanel excavation crew?” You raised an eyebrow and shot Gippal a curious look. 

“What's that mean?” Zack asked, looking over the card with a clueless expression. 

“It means I just secured our financial future. If we hit the ground running and go straight to Bikanel Island tomorrow, we can start digging for $1,000 Gil a day. That's $3,000 for all of us, so by the end of the work week we'll have $15,000. That's enough for extra spending money and a hunter’s license for all of us and once we have those babies…” He sighed contentedly, exploring the countless opportunities in his mind, “Nothing but smooth sailing.” 

“Rags to riches, desert style.” Zack mused. 

“Rags to bitches.” Gippal corrected before he hooked an arm around Zack's shoulder and the other around yours then he led you out of the temple and back over to the ship. 

“Now where?” You asked, enjoying the sunset sky with a small smile as you stepped back out into the warm air. 

Gippal checked his watch, “We've got some time to kill. Wanna see something cool?” 

You and Zack just nodded like excited children. 

He took you past the ship and down the path leading away from the temple, then stopped to chat with the Al Bhed hover driver shortly after to hitch a ride to the Moonflow. You recognized it right away from the pictures you found in a textbook, but like everything here, it was so much more breathtaking in person. A cool breeze drifted over still waters and rustled through the moonlilies, causing them to release iridescent and color shifting lights. They were pyreflies, and they were everywhere here. Rising from the flowers and the waters, they danced through the air as they floated away into the rosy sky. There were even large, pale green shoopufs with their spiraling noses and dopey expression wading belly deep in the calm water, with the funny blue hypello swimming happily around them. 

You were beginning to think there wasn't an ugly place in Spira, and you were so thankful to have Gippal guiding you around to all the best spots you might not have found on your own. 

You sat by the water’s edge with your boys, stretched out on the soft grass with your sleeves rolled up to try and soak in some of the warm sun before it disappeared for the day, having some light chatter and making plans for fun things to do once you were done working and had your hunter’s license. In no time at all, Gippal’s phone went off and he sighed, saying it was time to get back to the ship and make for the meeting point. Everyone was supposed to meet in the capital city, Bevelle, for a head check, orientation talk, and dinner. 

∞

The school staff had a massive gummi ship of their own, and they carted all the students who didn’t pass or didn’t want to do survival training, and therefore weren’t awarded a small personal ship, to Spira. There was a decent sized docking bay on their ship, but Gippal insisted that your group didn’t park there since then the only way to get the ship back was to go through Cid. Instead, he parked the ship in some repair garage a friend of his father owned, and you got to take a little stroll through the city as you walked from the garage to the spaceport, where the staff’s ship was.

You missed the orientation talk, but managed to find Lulu in her lab and get the important information from her while the boys tried to find Auron for the headcount so no one called your parents in a panic saying you didn’t make it to Spira. Lulu seemed to anticipate that you’d be late, and had prepared a pack with everything that had been given out at the orientation waiting for you. It was mostly just a fiend guide, map, travel guide, culture hotspot lists, and job applications for things like ‘become a Besaid weaver’ or ‘learn machina repair at Djose Temple,’ and there was a first aid kit full of potions, antidotes, and ethers among other things like bandaids and gauze. Gippal already had a solid work plan, knew all the best places to go, and didn’t need a map, so it was actually kind of fine that you missed orientation. 

You had a hard time finding your boys again when you finally got down to the cafeteria, but you managed to find Cloud and sat with him and his group for the meal. Around halfway through dinner, Zack and Gippal strode in looking like they had been taken down a peg by Cid and Auron, who were practically dragging them along by their ears. It was funny, you distinctly remembered Gippal saying “It’s fine, I’ll handle Auron. That guy loves me,” to which you replied, “He hates you,” and he smirked and said, “Well, it’s one or the other,” before sauntering off down the hall like he owned the place.

They plunked down at your dinner table looking like naughty children who finally got the spanking they deserved, but while they were trying to explain what they got yelled at for, you were busy watching the staff table, where you saw Terra, Aqua, and Ven sitting near the end. They were  more than halfway across the room from you, and there were so many students in between you and them that there was probably no way Ven could pick you out of the crowd, but that didn’t stop you from staring slightly, willing for him to look up from his plate and make eye contact with you. He was throwing in the odd comment into Terra and Aqua’s conversation, but for the most part it seemed like he was keeping his head down and focusing on his food, or playing with the wristband he was wearing. He didn’t look any different to you, but you hoped he got what he needed out of the trip to Midgar. 

“They actually called him?” Cloud asked with a poorly stifled laugh, smirking and clearly loving every second of this. 

“Yeah! I guess they got tired of yelling at us, and wanted to let Basch have a turn.” Zack grumbled. 

“It’s not like we kidnapped her. We just took off out of sequence.” Gippal mumbled defensibly. 

“You know, he tried to get them to allow you to switch with her? Said it made more sense for her to be with Tifa and Yuffie and you to be with us.” Zack said, recalling Basch practically begging the school board to make you and Cloud switch teams. 

“I mean, it kinda does.” Yuffie shrugged, and they glared daggers at her. 

“It does.” Tifa backed her up. 

“Maybe it does, but who cares?” Cloud said apathetically, like Basch could come running into the room right now and demand you switched, and he still probably wouldn't do it. 

“The Strife’s always play by their own rules.” Zack said defiantly, and Gippal nodded.

“You can't make either of these two do something they don't want to. The Strife’s are mules.” 

“Yeah, well, just remember who they got it from.” Tifa said, then paused, “Or who Cloud got it from, at least.” 

“My mom’s even worse than Basch.” You said, only half paying attention to their conversation as you scanned around the room for other people you knew. 

“Is no one upset he called us mules? No one gonna protest that? No? Just me?” Cloud shot everyone around the table a lazy glare before shaking his head and returning to his meal. 

“What are your plans for the week anyway?” Tifa asked Zack, and he looked over at Gippal. 

“Top secret.” 

“You wanna tell us where you're going at least?” Yuffie deflated, worrying you were going to be off having fun and didn't want to let anyone else in on it. 

“It'd be nice to keep tabs on you guys.” Tifa added, trying to implore Gippal to tell them. 

“Top. Secret.” 

“It'd be nice to keep tabs on you guys.” Cloud repeated Tifa’s sentiment using his murder tone and shooting them nasty glares. 

“Bikanel.” Gippal gave up, thinking Cloud knowing where you were was probably better for his health and wellbeing. 

“What are you guys doing?” You asked after Cloud was finished trying to make their heads explode with his mind. 

“We were going to stick around Bevelle for a few days, see the sights, shop a little. I hear they have really nice hot springs in Gagazet, so maybe we'll go there.” Tifa mused, and Zack rolled his eyes. 

“A whole new world and you just wanna shop and pamper?” He asked, sounding bored just listening to their plans. 

“I'll try and buy something cute for you to wear, too. Lord knows you need the help.” Yuffie shot Zack’s outfit a look and laughed to herself. 

“Women.” Gippal said with a shake of his head, “It's a good thing ≈≈≈≈≈ isn't trying to do anything girly, otherwise we might need to change partners.” 

“I am a girl, so everything I do is girly.” You shot back, but all the same you had to agree you'd rather be exploring new parts of the world than shopping. Not that you had anything against shopping, but it wasn't exactly top priority for you. 

“As long as you're doing what I want, call yourself whatever you'd like.” He shrugged. 

“Charming.” Tifa rolled her eyes. 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈ if you ever need a break from these losers, you come find us.” Yuffie put a hand over yours like she was really trying to make sure you heard her, “You don't have to stay with these nasty, smelly, dumb boys any longer than you want to. And you don't have to do what Gippal says either.” 

“I know Yuf. Don't worry.”

“‘Sides, we all know who's really in charge of our group.” Zack said confidently, and everyone around the table fell quiet, “It's me.” 

“Okay.” Yuffie laughed. 

“It is! I'm the leader.” 

“I said okay.” She laughed even harder. 

You leaned your chin on your hand as you watched them continue to argue and chatter away, enjoying the pleasant atmosphere and how happy everyone seemed to be now that you were all finally in Spira. 

“Oh! There they are! ≈≈≈≈≈≈!” Someone yelled your name across the room, and you spent a good while looking around before you saw Sora’s arm up in the air waving for you, “≈≈≈≈≈≈!” 

When you finally saw him, you couldn't help but smile. He was being loud as usual, and Riku and Roxas were trying to hide their faces and shut him up before he caused too much of a scene, “I'll be right back.” You said to everyone at the table before getting to your feet and crossing the room to where Sora was sitting with his group, the Hayner-Pence-Olette group, the Namine-Kairi-Xion group, the Tidus-Wakka-Selphie group, and the Demyx-Axel-Reno group. 

“Hey guys.” You greeted as you walked up, and Sora shoved Riku over so they could make room for you to sit. 

“Where were you during orientation?” Sora asked as you struggled to wedge yourself in between him and Riku. They had so many people crammed around the table already, it was almost impossible to not be brushing elbows and clanking knees with both of them. 

“We skipped it. Didn’t think it was relevant.” You said, looking across the table at Roxas and seeing the big plate of french fries he had gotten for dinner. Your hand snuck across the table, and he just sighed as he watched you snatch up some fries. 

“Must be nice to be above the rules.” Riku watched with a grumpy expression as you took the fries, then Sora tried to get some for himself and Roxas grabbed the fork off his tray to threaten him to stay back. 

“We’re not above the rules. Did you see Auron and Cid march Zack and Gippal in here?” 

“Did anyone yell at you?” Roxas asked.

“Yeah, Lulu.” 

“Well, good.” He shot back, “You got away with too much already.” 

You raised an eyebrow at him, “You want me to go get you more fries? Because I will.”  

“It’s not about the fries.” 

“Don’t wish Lulu’s wrath on someone just because their ship takes off a little early.” Sora scoffed at his brother and Riku for being so bitter. They were probably just jealous you decided to pick Zack and Gippal as your partners, and wanted to pick at every decision they made. 

“Have you guys had a chance to check out any of Spira yet?” You asked trying to change the subject. 

“No. Because we got here and landed when we were supposed to, where we were supposed to.” Riku snarked, and you sighed at him. 

“You know I had no control over that. They know how to fly gummi ships, so they flew the ship.” 

“We know. They’re just being asses.” Sora assured you. 

“What else is new?” You laughed, “Anyway, do you know what you're doing tomorrow?” 

“We wanted to hike through Spira, pretty much. Starting from the top.” Sora said. 

“We're going to Besaid, and we're gonna slowly work our way down through the continent, ending at Mt. Gagazet.” Riku offered a more detailed plan before asking, “What are your plans?”

“Gippal is making us work in the desert for a couple days, until we can get hunter’s licenses. Then, I guess we're just going to go around grind hunting and exploring.” 

“That's a cool plan.” Sora admitted, a bit jealously. 

“It's basically our plan, but with desert work.” Riku grumbled. 

“Wow, you're crabby.” You teased him, and he got faintly pink in the cheeks before turning away from you to get a sip of juice. 

“What's a hunter's license?” Roxas asked. 

“There are fiend notices posted all over the place with cash rewards, but in order to take any of them you need a hunter’s license. If one of you gets a license, you can take on the low ranking hunts, but the real money is in higher ranking hunts which you can only take on if you're in a group of hunters.” You parroted what Gippal said to you earlier. 

“So you guys are just going to become a team of bounty hunters? Rox, can we-”

“No.” Roxas shut him down so fast you were surprised it didn’t crush more of Sora’s enthusiasm, but then again, it was Sora. 

“Oh come on! It sounds awesome.” 

“Zack is as close as a guy our age can get to being a SOLDIER , Gippal is a mechanical genius, and ≈≈≈≈≈ is a black magic savant. If they want to take on the toughest fiends Spira has to offer, that's their prerogative. Mom said not to let you stay in the sun too long or eat potato chips and ice cream at every meal. I think they out class you a little.” 

“Or,” You began in a sing-song tone, “you could join us! Don't tell me you think hiking sounds more fun than fiend hunting. Besides, you'll still get your hiking in...just with some added whoop ass.” 

“You do love whoop ass.” Sora pleaded, “C’mon, let's be bounty hunters! Let me live out at least one childhood dream.” 

“Childhood?” Riku rolled his eyes, knowing that was something Sora still fantasized about. 

“How can you say no to this face?” You took Sora by the chin and pulled him around so both of them could get a good look at him. You caught sight of Lulu walking into the room over Riku’s shoulder, and watched curiously as she strode right past all the food and went straight over to the faculty table. She stopped in front of Terra, saying a few words to him before moving to Aqua. Ven responded to whatever she said, and Aqua nodded, then Lulu reached for Ven’s arm. He pulled away from her with a grumpy look on his face, and she put her hand on her hip and looked at Terra, who shrugged. Terra said something to Ven, and he sighed heavily before getting to his feet and walking away with Lulu. As they walked by all the rows of tables to get to the exit, you couldn’t help but sigh and think there wasn’t any chance of you talking to him before dinner let out. 

“We’ll give it some thought.” Riku said, and you snapped back into the conversation suddenly, and realizing you had missed an entire exchange between Roxas and Sora. 

“Hey, I mean, it’s your trip and you can do what you want, but this is what we’re doing and I’d love it if you joined us sometime. You too, Axel.” You said, knowing that he had been listening in on your conversation since the start. 

“Well, don’t mind if I do.” He gave a sly smile, not even trying to hide the fact he was listening in. 

“If you think you can throw the term bounty hunter around without us getting a little excited and wanting to get involved, you’ve got another thing coming.” Reno added, though Demyx didn’t look quite as thrilled. 

“We’re gonna die in a ditch while Reno is humming the Mission Impossible theme.” Demyx sighed. 

“Well,  _ you _ might.” Reno shrugged. 

“Nah, you’ll be fine. You’ve always been good at running away from a fight.” Axel smirked. 

“Demyx, you ever put a bounty out on them, let me know. I’ll take care of them for you.” You said, giving Axel and Reno a look for bullying him. 

“I’d like to see you try.” Axel crossed his arms and sat back in his chair in a challenging way.

“Me too, she’d kick your ass. That’d be a fun match to watch.” Roxas backed you up. 

“Tag team: you and her, me and Reno.” Axel suggested, pointing at you and Roxas then himself and his brother.

“What? Come on. There’s no way I’m fighting a girl.” Reno sighed. 

“I don’t mind, why should you? Dukes up, Reno.” You said with a smirk.

“You calling me a girl, Strife?” Reno put his elbows on the table and leaned in towards you to try and be intimidating.

“Don’t disrespect my gender, Sinclair.” You shot back, leaning in right back until you were as close as you could get to him with Riku blocking you and Axel and Roxas blocking him from being directly across from you.  

Zack and Gippal came over and saw the showdown going on between you and Reno, and they instantly tried to jump in after getting to their feet and walking over to stand behind you as back up. . 

“You got a problem with my teammate there, Reno? You pick a fight with her, you’re picking one with me.” Zack said, giving him a mean glare. 

“What’s your problem, I didn’t do anything.” Reno raised his hands innocently. 

“Don’t you bullshit me. I’m watching you. I’m watching allllll of you.” Gippal crossed his arms and mirrored Zack’s disapproving look as he stared down half the table. 

“Ignore him, he’s grumpy from the flight.” You apologized to the table on his behalf.

“No, I was happy on the flight. I’m grumpy from the landing. Now c’mon. We’re going.” Gippal said and you sighed as you begrudgingly got to your feet.

“Where are we going?” 

“Not in front of team  G inger  F ever.” Zack also partook in the stare down with Axel and Reno. 

“Says team  J am-jam  F ever.” Axel shot back, referring to the pajamas all three of you were trying to pass off as real clothes. 

“It's a good thing you guys all look like supermodels, otherwise people might think you're hobos.” Demyx added, and Reno sighed. 

“Yup. Bring the heat Demy. Just like that.” Axel said with just enough mastery of sarcasm that Demyx actually believed him. 

“And...you all..smell really nice,  so that—–”

“Demyx. Shut up.” Reno rolled his eyes. 

You laughed, but Zack and Gippal had to keep up the tough guy act as they began to lead the way out into the hall. You passed by Lulu’s lab and poked your head in the door, but the room was empty and dark. You really weren’t going to be able to talk to Ven tonight. You tried not to let your disappointment show as Gippal took you off the ship and through the city to a cheap travel agency, saying it would be nice to have at least one night in a nice bed before heading out to the desert. You didn’t like the implication of that, but decided you didn’t want to know. 

After coughing up your share of the room fee and getting a key, you went up to the roof to look at the city at night and call home and Prompto, while Zack went out for a jog and Gippal went for a shower. 

“It’s so beautiful here. You’d love it.” You said to Prompto, who you were facetiming on the phone, sitting back on the bench and admiring the skyline of the city. Night had fallen, and everything was all lit up, “It’s just another big city, but it’s so different from Midgar.” You had the camera on your phone flipped so he could see the same view you could. Tall, red towers with banners covered in scriptures of Yevon were everywhere, and unlike Midgar, everything was built in the same style. 

Prompto whistled, obviously as impressed as you were,  _ “Man, I feel like an idiot. Here I was, gloating that you had to move to a rinky dink town in the middle of nowhere while I got to stay where all the action was. Guess I was wrong.”  _

“Oh please, who would ever want to stay in Midgar.” You laughed, flipping the camera around so he could see your face. He was smiling, like always, but looked a little sad to you at the same time. 

_ “I know you hated it here, but...you’re gonna come back sometime, right?”  _

“What if you came here?” You countered, and he laughed. 

_ “You know I’d leave in a heartbeat, but…” _

“I know. School and your parents. Don’t worry. I’ll sneak up on you one of these days.” 

_ “Oh yeah? Good luck doing that from Spira. I swear, it’s like you’re trying to hurt me. You couldn’t have picked a world farther away from me if you tried.”  _

“You say that like it was my decision.” 

_ “Yeah, yeah, I know. I just miss you is all. Oh, hey. Noct just walked in. Wanna say hi?”   _

“Noctis? Oh, I-I don’t—” You began, trying desperately to fix your hair up and look any kind of decent before Prompto threw the phone off to Noctis. You had to stifle a gasp as Noctis took the phone and tried to figure out what was going on. He looked so much older now than when you last saw him. He definitely hit a growth spurt over the summer, and his voice was much deeper than you remembered. 

_ “What’s going on?” _ Noctis asked, shooting Prompto a puzzled look. You hadn’t moved or spoken, so maybe he thought Prompto was just showing him a picture of you. 

“Hey, Noctis.” You said, thinking it would be weirder to just stay silent. 

_ “Oh, shit. Hey, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. _ ” He blushed faintly, finally realizing what was happening,  _ “Uh...how’s it going?” _

_ “There you go, buddy! No one would ever guess this is your first time talking to another human being.” _ Prompto teased him for becoming so stiff and awkward the moment he realized there was someone else there.

“Aw, leave him alone. You’re the one trying to force your friends to be friends.” You tried your hardest not to laugh at Noctis’ baffled and uncomfortable expression. 

“ _ You guys have a lot in common! You'd like each other if you got to know one another.”  _ Prompto fussed, popping up behind Noctis’ shoulder on the screen. 

“I like him just fine already.” You shrugged slightly, not sure how else to respond, really. 

“ _ You're the one I’m not so sure about.”  _ Noctis rolled his eyes, handing the phone off to Prompto before going over to the sofa and plopping down lazily. 

_ “Can you blame a guy for trying?”  _ Prompto sighed with a small smile, and a pillow you guessed Noctis chucked at him hit him square in the face. 

“Apparently you can.” 

_ “I'm gonna need to call you back, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. This loser is begging for payback.”  _ Prompto said as he caught the pillow after it bounced off his head, and you laughed. 

“Alright, guys. Enjoy your pillow fight.”

_ “What?” _

_ “Aw c’mon ≈≈≈≈≈! Don't phrase it like that!”  _ Prompto whined, but you just laughed harder. 

“Goodnight, you two.” 

“ _ Night!”  _

_ “Bye.”  _ Noctis mumbled from off screen, and Prompto beamed at you before hitting the end call button. 

You sighed contently as you pocketed your phone, looking out at the skyline once more before deciding it was probably time to go back inside and get ready for bed. You went into the room you had rented out in the travel agency and stood baffled in the doorway. There were only two twin beds, and Gippal was sprawled out on one snoring. Zack wasn't back yet, so you were free to claim the other bed, after brushing your teeth and washing your face. You dropped your stuff on the corner of the bed and decided maybe you’d do some stretching before going to sleep to try and relax yourself so the stigma pains wouldn't bother you so much. 

You were sitting on the floor doing some toe touches when Gippal woke himself up from snoring too loud. He sat up groggily and looked around for a second before yawning and saying, “So Zack’s probably dead, right?” 

“He has been out running for an hour, so probably.” You nodded, sitting in a straddle and trying to lay flat against one leg while grabbing your foot. 

“Okay, cool. As long as we're both okay with it.” He rubbed his eyes, then made a face at you, “What are you doing?” 

“Just hanging out.” You said through strained breaths as you pushed yourself closer and closer to the ground despite the terrible burn in your legs and side. 

“Just hanging out?” He laughed, trying to tilt his head to match your angle after you switched to the other leg. 

“Just hanging out.” You repeated, sitting up and sighing, “Would you push me?” You asked before trying to lay your stomach flat on the ground in front of you. Aqua called this the pancake, and she could do it perfectly...then again, her straddle was less of a straddle and more of a plain ol’ middle split, but you were getting there. 

“With pleasure. Pushing people is what I do best.” He grinned, scooting to the foot of his bed. You moved over so your back was to him, and instead of pushing you with his hands, he put a foot on your back and gradually began putting more weight on you. “This is kind of awesome.” He grinned, seeing that with his help you were actually able to get pretty flat to the ground. 

“Speak...for yourself…” You said through clenched breaths. It might have looked easy for you to him, but it felt like you were dying slowly inside.

The door opened and Zack came busting in slightly out of breath with earbuds hanging around his neck and a sweat stained t-shirt clinging to his frame, “That was awesome, I ran around the whole—uh, what’s going on here?” 

“He’s killing me.” You turned your head so your cheek was pressed into the carpet and you could look at him. 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈’s made out of rubber.” 

“Must be why she’s so good at lightning magic.” He mumbled, setting his ipod on the desk and sitting down to take his shoes off. 

“That’s kind of the opposite of how that works.” Gippal chuckled, and you wheezed a little as he put more weight on you. 

“You okay there, champ?” Zack asked as he pulled off his shoe, turning his head to the side to match your angle just like Gippal had earlier. 

“I’m great!” You sassed him, clenching your jaw as you told yourself to just keep holding it for a little bit longer. 

“I’m gonna clean off...try not to break her.” Zack warned Gippal as he got to his feet and made for the bathroom. 

He was gone for all of five minutes, since he really just did a quick rinse in the shower before getting ready for bed, but when he came out you and Gippal were in stitches. 

“Zack, check it out.” Gippal said through a fit of laughter, standing beside you and holding out an arm. He swung it at your back slowly, at just the right time so that when you started to do a back walkover it looked like you were dodging his attack in a slow mo matrix kind of way. “This is awesome. Why have we never had any girls in our group before?” 

“Because, no other girls would take you.” You smirked, and he suddenly swung his arm at you again, too fast for you to dodge it. 

“Wow...remind me not to leave you two alone.” He laughed. 

“Whatever. Are you losers finally ready for bed?” Gippal flopped back down into his bed to make it clear that he wasn’t planning on sharing. 

“Why’d we get a room with only two beds?” Zack asked, grabbing a pillow and throwing it on the floor. 

“Zack, don’t sleep on the floor.” You sighed, stopping him from pulling the top blanket off Gippal’s bed as he kicked it off. 

“Cloud would kill me.” Zack didn't even need to think about it. 

“Cloud’s not here.” 

“He'd know.” 

“How?” 

“You think Zack would be able to share a bed with you and not brag about it like an idiot at some point?” Gippal laughed as he got all snuggled up in bed, fluffing his pillows and pulling the sheets up to his chin. 

“You know, you could share your bed with him.” You eyed him. 

“Ha! Okay.” Gippal drawled, rolling his eyes. 

“It's fine, ≈≈≈≈≈≈.” 

“Just get in the damn bed. Don't make it weird.” You said, adopting a tone he thought was very similar to Cloud’s. Frankly, it was hard to tell who's murder voice and eyes were scarier. Cloud was certainly stronger and would probably be more creative with his murder strategy, but then again death by an angry lightning mage didn't sound particularly appealing either. 

Zack awkwardly picked up the pillow and made to get into bed while you went into the bathroom to plug your phone in since the boys were using all the outlets in the main room. 

When you walked back into the room, Gippal had turned the light out so you had to feel around in the dark for your bed. You tripped over one of your discarded shoes and fell into Gippal’s bed, landing on him pretty much elbow first. You might have been aiming for him since he couldn't wait two seconds before turning the light out in the first place, and in retaliation he kicked you off him and over to your bed. You gave a haughty sigh and he just yawned in reply. 

You rolled your eyes and climbed into bed, grumbling about what an asshole Gippal was as you settled in. Zack ran like a furnace, so he pushed most of the blankets over to your side of the bed and you were suddenly so thankful that you were sharing with him and not Gippal, who would have waged a war with who got the most blankets with you all night just to spite you. 

The room was all quiet except for the buzz of the air conditioner, and then eventually Gippal began snoring again. It wasn't too loud or annoying, luckily, though you began to worry what you'd do if Zack snored too, and you'd be surrounded on all sides all night long, but it didn't seem like he did. To be fair though, it also didn't seem like he was asleep either. He was on his back with his hands folded over his chest and he was lying perfectly still, like he was afraid that Cloud would pop in through the window if he moved just an inch closer to you. It was actually pretty funny, you thought, until you realized that probably wasn't what was keeping him up. It was much more likely that your constant tossing and turning to get comfortable was to blame. You had always been a bit of a wiggly sleeper, but the stigma made it so much worse. You didn’t even know you were doing it some of the time, like anytime a new wave of pain washed over you, you would just reflexively turn over. 

After nearly an hour, Zack finally spoke up. 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈?” He asked in a low whisper, “You alright?” 

“Yeah. Sorry, I’ll try to stop.” You replied in an equally quiet whisper. It didn’t seem like you’d wake Gippal up by talking, but it still felt like whispering was the right thing to do given the situation.

“It’s okay just...are you?” 

“I’m fi—”

“≈≈≈≈≈≈, you promised.” He reminded you, his tone equal parts stern and concerned.  

You sighed in irritation, but ultimately gave up, “Okay. It hurts, and I can’t sleep.” 

“Then just say that, I can help. Drink this.” He leaned over the side of his bed and got out a small vial of clear liquid. He handed it over to you, and you downed it in one gulp just to make him stop looking at you like that. His gaze softened as you put the empty vial on the nightstand, and he held out his hand for you to take. Instead, you scooted closer to him and pulled his arm around you before snuggling your head onto his shoulder. He went rigid at first, but as you settled in and let your arm drape over his chest and began to let yourself rest heavily against him as you got comfortable, he began to relax. His arm curled around you, and the other found your hand on his chest and he interlaced his fingers with yours. It was faint and far more subtle than you were used to, but there was definitely healing magic flowing into you from his hands. The pain you were feeling didn’t lessen any, but everything was beginning to get so heavy that you couldn’t help but to let the full weight of your head and arm press into him. It was like your brain was still saying ‘I’m uncomfortable, this hurts, I need to move’ but your body was saying ‘too bad, I’m already asleep.’  

“Better?” He asked after a few minutes, able to feel you get heavier on him and your breathing relax as the magic took effect. 

“Much.” The sudden sleepiness came on so fast and so strong you had to fight to talk. He didn't take either of his hands away from you, but the magic flow stopped shortly after that. 

“You can tell me when you're struggling. I told you, I'm taking this seriously.” 

“I'm sorry.” You wanted to explain to him that it had nothing to do with him, and everything to do with the fact that you hated asking for help because on some level it felt like that meant the disease was beating you, but a slightly slurred apology was all you could muster in this state. 

“Don't apologize, I mean, I know this is new for you. But it's new for me too, you know? I don't know how to offer any support or comfort when you shut me out.” 

“If I bothered you every time it hurt, you'd never have a minute of peace.” Just getting that sentence out felt like the most taxing thing you'd done all day. 

“Well, good. I hate minutes of peace. Look who my friends are.” He laughed, stroking your hair soothingly as Gippal continued to snore away happily on his side of the room. “Besides...I could kind of get used to this...even if that sounds selfish.” He said as he pulled the blankets up over your shoulder and made sure your arm was covered. 

He was expecting you to reply, but it was just too much of a struggle for you to keep awake at this point. Your eyelids were too heavy to keep open, and your voice felt far away and inaccessible. 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?” He looked down at you and gave you a light shake, but even though you felt it you couldn't respond, “Huh...well that was fast. Ven wasn't kidding around with that stuff...” He mumbled to himself, making a mental note never to make a skilled white mage angry either. You went from restless to out cold in a few seconds, and that was just from a secondhand dose. 

The next morning, an alarm woke you all up at sunrise. Zack was the only morning person in the group, so it was a little unbearable to be around him while trying to pack up the room and walk to the gummi ship, but by the time Gippal got the ship ready for take off and Zack got back from a quick breakfast sandwich and coffee run, you were feeling more talkative and started to enjoy the trip to Bikanel Island. You weren't sure what to expect there, but you trusted Gippal. 

∞

5 Days Later

∞

_ ‘Trust Gippal? The fuck was I thinking!?’  _ You screamed at yourself internally, as you had been for the last few days repeatedly. Anger didn’t even begin to describe what you were feeling. Unbridled rage came closer, but still honestly felt a little bit tame. 

You plunged your shovel down into the hot sand and fell heavily onto your butt before ripping off all your digging gear. Bikanel Island was exciting for all of two minutes before the unbearable heat started to ruin things. And digging was a complete nightmare. You worked seemingly endless hours walking on scorching sand looking for stupid machina bits in a desert that was bigger than the entire city of Midgar and Traverse Town combined. You weren’t even getting a nice tan out of being in the sun all day because of the gear they had you wearing. It was more effective to have you covered head to toe in wind, sand, and heat resistant padding than it was to have you taking sun screen breaks every couple of hours, and you needed thick gloves in order to work with the shovel for hours on end anyways. The sun reflected off the sand so brightly that you had to wear goggles to protect your eyes beyond just keeping sand out of them, and despite all this, sand still managed to sneak into your clothes and irritate your skin all over. There was no part of you that was exposed besides your hair, and you spent the past five days sweating your sorry ass off on a miserable godforsaken spit of sand. Literally. You probably lost several pounds from just sweating alone, not to mention all the hard physical labor that came with digging. At least you knew you could look forward to dehydration and weight loss possibly killing you before the sun stroke or heat exhaustion did.   

You threw your gloves down, unclipped the padding on your arms and slid those off, peeled the shoulder pads off and then tore at the straps on your torso gear to free yourself until you were wearing nothing on top but a sports bra before mentally preparing yourself for taking off your face guard and goggles. The sudden flood of light was physically painful, but the relief of feeling the wind on your face made it so worth it...even if you were a little bit blind for the first few minutes of it. 

You took your canteen of water and held it over your head and dumped it. It was hot from being in the sun with you all day, but at least it helped wash away the sweat that was practically pooling on your face. You were so sweaty it looked like you had been greased up, but at least now you weren’t sweating into your padding any more to make it smell even worse than it already did after five days of being in it. You wished you could take off your shoes and the padding on your legs and butt but you knew you wouldn’t be able to walk or sit down without burning your feet and ass if you did.  

You let your hair down and tried to enjoy a nice moment in the sun, but to be honest it felt more like you were sitting  _ on _ the sun and it was impossible to enjoy it. There was a blur of heat rising from the dunes that made it dizzying to look at anything on the horizon, so you just sat there, staring down at the pile of clothes in front of you, thinking of different ways to murder Gippal. 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈≈! There you are!” Zack called out to you, his head popping up over a nearby dune. It was easy to tell which one he was because he was the only guy out there with black hair. The rest of the diggers were Al Bhed, making it almost impossible to pick Gippal out, which was extremely lucky for him on days when you felt like taking your frustration out on him.

“Don't you dare tell me to get back to work. Don't you fucking dare.” You warned as he got closer. 

“Don't worry, I wasn't planning on it. I'm slacking off too.” He shrugged, taking a seat beside you, “You look pretty.” 

“Eat a dick, asshole.” You grumbled, icing over your hand and trying to put it on the back of your neck to give yourself a moment's relief from the heat, but it all melted on your hand before it could get there. You sighed, thinking you should have known better than to even try at this point. 

“I mean it! You're very shiny.” He laughed, eyeing a bead of sweat rolling down your neck and pooling in the hollow of your collar bone. You looked all glisteny to him, and it certainly didn't help that you were just in your bra at the moment. 

“Yeah, cuz I'm super goddamn sweaty.” 

“Anyone ever tell you that you've kind of got a mouth on you?” 

“Most people with faces do.” 

“Mouthy and crabby. Just the way I like you.” He sighed contently as he pulled out a clear water bottle that still had a chunk of ice in it. He must have just walked over from the rest station by the hovers if he had water that still had ice in it. He got a devious smirk as he reached over and pressing the side of the bottle into your cheek, but honestly it felt so damn good to have something cold burning against your flushed skin for once that instead of snapping at him you sighed and relaxed into it. 

“Thank god we're almost done. Another day of this would kill me.” You said, taking the bottle from him and holding it to your forehead for a moment before cracking it open to take a sip. 

“I know what you mean.” He said, taking off his gloves and then pulling off his face guard and goggles. He didn't give his eyes enough time to adjust, so the second he got the mask off he had to hold his forearm up to shield his eyes as he winced and blinked repeatedly,  “Retinas….seared like tuna steaks...whew, that is brisk.” He chuckled to himself as he continued to try and soothe his eyes after nearly blinding himself. 

“And to think, we thought spending the first week here shopping was a dumb idea.” 

“Those were the days. I was so young then. So innocent. No concept of desert rage or sand madness….I'm not even going to get a tan out of this.” 

“I know!” You exclaimed, happy that at least he was having a shitty time out here too. It was hard to tell if Gippal was enjoying himself or if he was just trying to double down on the idea that this was a good plan so he was just acting like he wasn't miserable. 

“Just a few more hours, then we never have to come back here again.” 

“Cheers to that.” You gave him an appreciative smile before clanking water bottles with him.

“Hey guys, what's going on here?” Gippal called out, walking over from the same path Zack had taken, “You're not slacking off, are you?” He was still fully clad in desert safe attire, but you knew it was him from his voice, and because he was speaking  E nglish. 

“I'd say I hope you die out here, but then I'd probably be the one to dig up your stupid, sorry bones, so—” 

“Yeah, we’re slacking off. What're you gonna do about it?” Zack cut you off before the desert rage could get to you anymore than it already had. 

“Aw, you sound grumpy.” Gippal sassed you. 

“You gonna ask me what’s wrong?” You asked in a tone that made it sound more like a dare than a question. 

“No way. I’m not pulling the pin on the grenade.” He laughed. 

“You wanna join us?” Zack asked. 

“Well, I would, but I think ≈≈≈≈≈≈’s trying to kill me with her mind.” 

“Well spotted.” You narrowed your eyes at him.

“And besides, we’re done for the day. There's a sandstorm coming on, so we get to clock out early.” 

“Seriously?” 

“They’re still gonna pay us, right?” You asked, and he shook his head at you.

“Yeah, they’re still gonna pay us.” He deadpanned at you, then went on by saying, “You know, I get the feeling you guys aren’t having that much fun out here.” 

“At least we know he’s paying attention.” Zack shrugged. 

“Is he?” You wondered, seeing that even now it looked like he was staring off into space while you were talking. It was hard to tell with the goggles he was wearing, but he definitely wasn’t looking at either of you. 

“Cac...cactuar!” He pointed over your shoulder, and Zack whipped around to see the small green cactuar that had scurried out from behind a rock. 

“Here we go again…” You sighed, turning around to watch as Zack sprang to his feet and rushed over to the little green cactus fiend.

“Come on, last chance! Get the camera ready!” He called to Gippal, who pulled out a sphere recorder from the small drawstring bag he had on his back. They were trying to document some important moments of the trip using an authentic Spiran camera that used spheres instead of film, and all week they had been trying to get a good video of Zack dancing with a cactuar. He was actually pretty good at hopping around on one foot with his arms out in a cactus pose, but you didn’t even want to know how he knew what they called ‘the cactuar dance’ or how long he had to practice it to get as good as he was. 

You rested your chin on the back of your hand boredly and kept your mouth shut so you wouldn’t ruin the shot as Gippal walked around you with the sphere recorder in hand, and Zack snuck up beside the cactuar. When it saw him approach in a friendly manner, it jumped in excitement and let him get nearer. Zack started hopping, and the cactuar hopped back. It figured out he wanted to dance with it, and then the two synchronized their hops from one foot to the other. Zack mirrored the cactuars arm movements, and they began hopping and waving and finally spinning in place together. You couldn’t figure out if you thought it was cute or stupid.  

Eventually Gippal gave him the thumbs up, signaling that he had gotten the footage they wanted, and Zack stopped bouncing. The cactuar didn’t like that their little dance was over, and it ran up to Zack and kicked him in the shin before retreating back into the sand behind its rock. 

“Ow! Hey!” Zack called after it, holding his shin trying to hop after it, “You didn’t get that, right?”

“No, I didn’t and I’m so mad I missed it.” Gippal sighed, stashing the recorder in his small travel pack. 

“Maybe we can find another one, or a group of them.” 

“I think that shot was good, but if you want to, sure.” Gippal shrugged. 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈, what do you think?” Zack asked for your opinion as you began to get to your feet and collect all the clothing you threw off before heading off towards where the shuttles back to the Al Bhed camp were. 

“I think I can’t believe I actually find you attractive.” You mumbled shaking your head and not looking back at either of them. 

“Wait, what?” Zack nearly tripped over his own two feet as he let go of his dinged up shin, and Gippal started laughing and following after you, “Wait,  _ WHAT!?”  _   
  


∞

The shuttle ride back to base camp was oddly satisfying since you knew it was your last time, and you were able to get packed up in no time at all because you were so excited to leave. It was a good thing you were ready to go so fast, too, otherwise you would have been stuck on Bikanel until the storm passed and it was safe to fly again. Luckily, you got everything back on the ship and took off just as the sky was starting to turn a sour yellow color from all the sand getting kicked up into the air. There had only been a few sandstorms while you were there, but every time it was bad news. They’d pull you from the dig sites and make you wait in a dark bunker for a few hours until it passed, so you were almost too happy for words to be back on the gummi ship and flying towards civilization again. Not that the Al Bhed weren’t civilized, but you weren’t exactly touring their main city or anything like that. At least they paid you well, but frankly, if they weren’t paying you a fucking ton to do it, there was no way anyone in their right mind would sign up for digging. 

Gippal took you straight to Luca, and after dropping the ship off at a garage you and Zack split up from Gippal to go find a travel agency to stay the night at while Gippal went to buy hunter’s licenses for the three of you. Zack took a nap while you relaxed in the bath for a solid forty five minutes before deciding to treat yourselves to dinner out on the town. 

You went to a fancy cafe near the fiend hunter’s headquarters, so Gippal brought over a few flyers of active hunts you could take and you read over them while eating. 

“I say we take on the ‘Elemental Terror’ up on the Mi’ihen Highroad.” You said, sliding a flyer over to Gippal, “The Highroad is right there, the pay is good, and I could probably handle it with my eyes closed.” 

“Oh come on, don’t be lame. We’re not here to pick the easiest jobs we can find.” Gippal shook his head, sliding you a flyer for the killer wasps that were running rampant on Kilika island.  

“Bugs? You want me to go after a bunch of bugs? No way.” You had to put your foot down somewhere, and after the whole desert ordeal, you got the feeling Gippal needed to learn your boundaries real quick or else you might actually kill him one of these days. 

“And feminism marches on.” He glared at you, and Zack laughed to ease the tension at the table. 

“We can do both, guys. Hell, we can do all of these. The more hunts we do, the higher our rank will get, and then we can take on the big boys.” He said, looking over at the headquarters across the street, where wanted posters with giant, nasty looking fiends hung in the windows.  

“Because the trip just wouldn’t be complete without getting our asses smeared across the wall by Spira’s finest.” You sighed. 

“Or we could just make enough money to live off for the trip. You know, keep our heads down and our asses out of trouble.” Gippal said, able to keep a straight face for all of ten seconds before breaking into a hearty belly laugh. 

“You guys are assholes.” You sat back in your chair and tried to just enjoy the last few bites of your meal before they dragged you into another mess. 

∞

The next two weeks were pretty amazing, actually. You got to spend your days traveling, seeing new places, and camping out under the stars. When the boys were behaving themselves, it was really fun to be around them and to get to experience this new world with them. And you had to admit, Sora kind of had a point when he said living like a bounty hunter would be cool. There were fiends everywhere that you had to fight all the time, so you were feeling pretty experienced and prepared for whatever came your way on the next hunt. Every now and again you would meet up with friends from different groups, but it seemed like everyone was having a good time living how they wanted to live out here.

At the moment, you were in Besaid Island on a contract to help control the Water Flan overpopulation problem by knocking their numbers down a peg. At this point, you didn’t really need the money, but it was such an easy job you didn’t mind taking it. You mostly just wanted to hang out on Besaid for a few days. It was like a relaxing holiday from all the work you had done these first three weeks in Spira. 

Besaid was beautiful. It was all white sand beaches, warm sunshine and cool crystal clear waters, amazing tropical fruit, and nights filled with a thousand stars. It was an island paradise in every sense, but something about sitting still all day relaxing just wasn’t very you anymore. You were the one who made the boys come here since it was your turn to pick the destination, so you couldn’t exactly tell them you were getting bored already...but you were. Two days of just sitting on your ass on a towel on the beach, and you were thankful for the hunting contract to distract yourself. 

You spent the night camping out under the stars and woke up at sunrise to the sound of chirping birds. The campfire burned out sometime during the night, but it was pleasant enough out that it wasn’t really a big deal. 

“Morning.” You said to Zack as he began to sit up. 

“You’re up early.” He replied with a yawn, reaching over to the fruit pile and grabbing a banana. Normally you would make oatmeal in the mornings, but it was so warm out fruit just felt like a better way to go. 

“It’s this damn place. I worked very hard disrupting my sleep schedule to get it as bad as it was, and in just two days this place gets it right back on track? Ridiculous.” You mused while stretching, before reaching for an orange. 

“It’s being out in nature that’s doing it. We can get you to a travel agency, pull the blinds and let you sleep the days away, if you want.” 

“Nah, I like camping. It’s nice out here. Don’t even need the mega tent.” 

“Mega Cube.” He corrected, and you laughed. 

“Whatever.” 

“Vilgehk pentc.” Gippal mumbled as he pulled his head out from under his pillow and sat up. He ran a hand through his messy hair, and looked around tiredly at you and Zack. ( **translate for a chocobuck)**

“Well, good morning sunshine.” You laughed, tossing some of the orange peel at him. 

“Is it?” He sighed, blocking the peel with his hand before laying back down and folding his arms behind his head. 

“Yup. ‘Nother day in paradise.” Zack said through a yawn. 

“Sounds like he’s bored, ≈≈≈≈≈≈.” 

“Well, he can pick where we go next, but for now, it’s my turn.”  You said firmly, referring to the schedule you had come up with. Gippal got Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to pick where you went and what you did, you got Tuesday and Wednesday, and Zack got Thursday and Friday. 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈ day sucks.” He grumbled as he rolled over. 

“I’m sorry, but weren’t you the guy who had us making sand castles on the face of the sun for a week?” Zack reminded him, then added, “And I, for one, love ≈≈≈≈≈≈ day and Gippal day equally.” 

“Well, good. Give us your days. Zack day sucks too.” 

“Alright, no more talking to Gippal until he’s had his coffee.” You laughed, knowing Gippal always got like this in the morning.

 

A few minutes later, after everyone had eaten and Zack made coffee, you all headed down to the lazy, slow flowing river that was a short ways away from the beach. It was a freshwater river, so you had been using that for bathing instead of walking all the way back to the village to get to your ship and showering there. It meant that your ‘shower’ was more of a rinse in the water in your bathing suit, but it really wasn’t a big deal since you’d only be there for two days. 

You were sitting on a rock with your toes dipped in the water, using hair conditioner as shaving cream on your leg, while Zack and Gippal sat nearby giving themselves shaving cream beards. They wasted so much of it from just playing around that you decided it was better to just find your own solution and not share with them.

“Well, well, well...look who we have here.” Riku said, sneaking up on you. 

“Riku!” You jumped so much in fright that you nearly fell into the water, “What are you doing here? How’d you find us?” You gawked at him as Sora and Roxas strode up beside him. You did a double take as you saw Sora, thinking he had gotten so tan since the last time you had seen him that he didn’t even look the same race as Roxas. They were all wearing swim trunks and loose, brightly colored tank tops, and Sora even had a towel around his shoulders, like they were on their way to the beach. 

“We saw your pictures, thought we’d try and meet up with you.” Sora explained, talking about the Instagram photos of the beach and sunset you had been posting since getting to Besaid. 

“Oh, so you stalked me.” You teased, and Sora flushed. 

“N-no, it was more...sleuthing.” He shrugged. 

“Don’t worry, we won’t do it again...it’s clear we’ve lost you to the wilderness…” Roxas said, cocking his head to the side and shooting you a baffled look. 

“Oh, shut up.” You rolled your eyes, and continued to go about your leg shaving while ignoring him. 

“You guys know the village is like, a twenty minute walk that way.” Riku pointed over his shoulder. 

“That’s, like, twenty minutes away.” Gippal scoffed. 

“Haven’t you guys ever heard of a nature shower?” Zack asked, dipping his head under water to wash off any remaining shaving cream on his face now that he was done. 

“Oh, we have, we just didn’t think we’d catch ≈≈≈≈≈≈ taking one.” Sora said. 

“At least not this early into the trip. It’s only been a few weeks.” Roxas mumbled. 

“Careful, next week we trade in clothes for loincloths, and the week after that we start throwing feces for fun.” You warned them and Sora laughed. 

“Aw, I missed you.” He said, beaming at you. 

“So, how’s that bounty hunting working out for you guys? You know, when you’re not all Man Vs. Wild?” Riku asked. 

“It’s been good.” 

“Can’t be that good, if you’re living outdoors now.” Roxas said, seeing your campsite a short ways up the hill. 

“Nah, see this? This is a lifestyle choice. We could drop the coin and stay in a fancy room every night if we wanted, but we like the nature adventure feel we’ve got going.” Gippal explained, stepping out of the water and shaking his hair dry like a dog.

“That true?” Riku asked you, and you shrugged and nodded. 

“Yeah, but we prefer to spend our money eating out. We can survive off a crappy night’s sleep, but we can’t survive off Gippal’s cooking. What about you guys? How are you getting along?” 

“Pretty good. We earned some money hanging posters around Luca for a Blitzball tournament, and got one hunter’s license a couple days back. Haven’t taken any hunts on yet, but we’re trying to save up to get tickets to a professional blitz game.” Roxas said. 

“Just one license? You didn’t get one for each of you?” 

“We just need to take on hunts for extra pocket change, we’re not trying to build a life around hunting.” Riku shrugged. 

“That’s lame.” Zack scoffed. 

“Which teams are you trying to see?” You asked, and Gippal shushed you. You shushed him right back, saying, “Gippal, other teams are not the enemy. It’s not a competition.” 

“Not with that attitude it isn’t.” He mumbled, splashing some water at you. 

“What if we made it a competition? At lease between us.” Zack offered, “Like say, see who can complete the most contracts by, Saturday at midnight?” 

“Well, that’s not fair, ≈≈≈≈≈≈’ll just take all the easy jobs.” Gippal complained, shooting you a knowing look. 

“No I won’t.” You scoffed, “Fine, what about whoever makes the most gil by the end of the week?” 

“Guys, is this really necessary?” Roxas asked as you all got to your feet and stood in a circle trying to come up with agreeable terms. 

“Relax, Roxy.” You said, and then continued to listen to Gippal’s proposal. 

“Winner gets to pick the hunts we do for a whole week. And for every complaint, another day gets tacked on.” 

“That could get cruel and unusual fast.” Zack put a hand on his hip, “Remember the stink monster from the Calm Lands?”

“What, the Malboro? Come on, that was nothing.” Gippal groaned about the fact the two of you were still hung up on that.. 

“Yeah I’m game,  d on’t be a chicken Zack.” 

“I was saying that for your sake.” He shot you a look. 

“Don’t do her any favors.” Gippal said. 

“Don’t tell him what to do.” You shot back. 

“Guys.” Riku tried to warn you all about the Water Flan that was slowly creeping out of the river. 

“Do we have to do solo hunts, or can we get help?” You asked. 

“You can get help, but you have to split the profits.” Zack countered. 

“Agreed.” 

“Okay, but everyone has to wear one of these.” Gippal pulled out the three distress beacons you had been given when you were working in the desert. They were little bracelets with a chip in them that, when activated, would send a signal with your location so someone could find you and bail you out of trouble if needed. It was primarily used to help hovers find you while digging in case you were attacked by fiends, needed water, or found something important, but with a little tweaking from Gippal, it functioned as a distress tracking device. You each took one, and you slipped it around your ankle, since it was way too big for your wrist now that you weren’t wearing the thick digging gloves. “No penalties for bailouts if one of us lands in hot water, but you do have to share your profits on that hunt.”   

“ _ Guys _ .” 

“So we got a deal, or not?” You crossed your arms now that you were all set to get this competition over with. You had your terms, the consequences and reward, and the fall back plan all in place, so the only thing left to do was to get going.

“Everyone agrees to the terms?” Zack asked and you both nodded.  

“Yup. Winner picks hunts for a week, no complaining. ” You said, going over it again briefly to make sure they both remembered.  

“Deal.” Gippal agreed, putting his hand in the middle of the circle. 

“Deal.” Zack put his hand on top of Gippal’s. 

”Game on.” You finished, putting your hand on top of theirs.  

“Guys! Water Flan!” Sora finally got your attention by putting a hand on your shoulder and shaking you a little to get you to focus. 

At the sound of a Water Flan being nearby, you turned to face it and cracked out a bolt of lightning almost at the same time as Zack and Gippal materialized their weapons. Zack threw his sword and Gippal fired a few rounds with his gun, but ultimately they just weren’t fast enough to beat you. The lightning struck the flan and it melted into a puddle of itself before bursting into a flurry of pyreflies. 

“And that makes twenty. My kill, my contract, my reward money.” You smirked, thinking that put you ahead of them by $1,000 gil already. 

“Well, good luck picking any more contracts when you’re stuck on Besaid.” Gippal smirked right back, collecting his things and preparing to make a mad dash for the gummi ship. Zack must have known what he was up to, because he also started scrambling for the campsite to get anything important before sprinting for the village. You had packed up before coming down to the river, so everything you needed was in your backpack a few feet away. 

“Oh my god, how are you three not dead yet?” Riku mumbled to himself as you ran to the beach to try and catch the morning ferry to Luca. 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈, wait, I wanna help!” Sora ran after you, “You don’t even have to pay me, just let me be a bounty hunter!” 

“Wait, Sora, come on!” Roxas hurried after you both, and Riku sighed before following along. 

“You really wanna help?” You asked as you slowed down from your run once getting to the beach. The ferry wasn’t even there yet, so there was no point in rushing. 

“Yeah!”   
“Sora, mom said—”

“Roxas, please.” Sora sighed. 

“Yeah, Roxy. Besides, look at him. You already let him stay out in the sun.” You said, and Sora pulled  the hemline of his board shorts down a smidge over his hip to reveal the frankly ridiculous tan lines he had. 

Roxas shot Riku a look, and he finally gave in, saying, “Alright...fine.”

“But, Sora was just kidding about the whole ‘you don’t have to pay me’ thing.” Riku said quickly. 

“The whole competition is based on her making more money than them.” Sora argued, and you waved him off. 

“It’s fine. You can take half.” 

“We’re only junior hunters, since Riku won’t let us get more than one license, so why don’t we call it 70-30, and we split our 30 three ways?” Roxas suggested. 

“That way, we get hunter’s experience and won’t need to pay full price for individual licenses.” Riku nodded, seeing where Roxas was going with this. 

“Deal.” You nodded, and then you sighed as you looked at the ferry schedule, “It’s not coming for another three hours. Damn it, they’re gonna get ahead.” 

“Relax, we can take our ship.” Riku said, and Sora got so excited he could barely contain himself. 

“Yes! Let’s go!” Sora raced off towards the village where their ship was parked, and you hurriedly followed along. 

“Let’s go kick some Zack n’ Gippal ass.” 

“Wow, and I thought we were a dysfunctional team. You guys are like cats and dogs.” 

“Don’t sass me, Roxas.” You called over your shoulder as he and Riku sighed before chasing after you. 

∞

You worked your butt off the next two days, traveling all around and taking out as many wanted fiends as you possibly could. Riku, Roxas, and Sora were great company and you loved working with them, and they even let you keep more than seventy percent after they decided they had made more than enough off you. They still wanted to go see the Blitz game friday evening, so you took a few hours off hunting to return with them to Luca for dinner before splitting up with them. 

A few other groups were in the area to watch the game as well, so you met up to eat with them. You were trying to explain to Selphie what you had been up to, since Tidus and Wakka were busy babbling about Blitz with the other boys, but she seemed just as put off by this conversation as she did the sports talk. 

“Well, it’s not a life I could ever understand, but whatever works for you.” She shrugged after you told her about the fiend hunting bet. 

“You don’t understand because you’re dumb.” You brushed her off. 

“Yeah, but I’m cute so I’m allowed to be dumb.” 

“You’re a real role model for girls everywhere.” You laughed and she shook her head.

“Like you’re one to talk. You get to be all buddy-buddy with two of the hottest guys in school, and yet rather than going to hot springs, romantic look outs, sandy beaches, or fancy restaurants in the city to have dates in,  _ you  _ get stuck in competitive rage mode and split up out of spite to win a bet.”

“Roxas! Stop telling everyone I have a competitive rage mode!” You snapped at him from across the table, interrupting his conversation with Wakka to yell at him. 

“I’m not even the one who coined the term, bonehead. It’s so synonymous with you that everyone collectively came up with that as a way to explain half of your behavior.” He shot back, and you sighed and looked back at Selphie.

She was still giving you a confused look, so you rolled your eyes and asked, “What, am I supposed to make out with both of them simultaneously, or make ‘em take turns?” 

“ _ BOTH!” _ She slapped her hands down on the table a few times for emphasis. 

“Is that what you do all day?” You laughed, and she sat back in her chair and waved her hand like that was a silly question. 

“No way. Tidus’ brain is waterlogged from all that Blitz, and Wakka is...Wakka’s…” 

“What?” 

“Well..it’s like...I think I either love him….or hate him. It’s hard to tell, and I don’t think I should make any moves before I’m sure.” 

“Ha, solid plan.” You laughed again, thinking you certainly had missed female company the past few weeks. Your phone went off, and you jumped up excitedly in your chair. You had a hunter’s app that would notify you when new contracts went up. “Oh, yes!” You got to your feet, forgetting all about the plate of food in front of you as you accepted the hunt. $50,000 gil for one lousy Bashura. “Who can take me to Mt. Gagazet? Like, right now?” You looked around the table. 

“The game starts in an hour…” Tidus said as soon as he saw Selphie was about to offer up their ship. You looked at Sora, who seemed like he really wanted to go with you, but you also knew how much their group wanted to see the blitz game too. 

“Can I just steal your ship for a few hours?” You deflated, thinking there was no way you could pass this opportunity up. Whichever one of your boys ended up stealing the gummi ship really screwed over the two of you who didn’t get it. 

“Oh, I know. Hold on a sec, Axel said his group was coming to the game too, but he didn’t really care about seeing it.” Roxas said, pulling out his phone. 

“Seriously? Axel would be perfect!” You gushed. 

“Oh?” Selphie shot you a look with raised eyebrows. 

“It’s a frozen mountain! A fire elemental is perfect!” You explained, and she sighed.

“Oh…” She blew her bangs out of her eyes, and drummed her fingers against the table in an irritated fashion, “You know, you’d think at some point I’d stop being disappointed in your shitty, platonic decisions, but apparently not.” 

“Save it for someone who doesn’t have a Bashura to toast.” You smirked, already feeling like you had won this bet. . 

“A what?” She shook her head and laughed. 

“It’s an ogre-looking thing. Big, ugly, four arms. Piece of cake. Roxy, what’s the deal?” 

“He says he’ll take you. They’re sitting at that big monument a couple blocks over. ” Roxas said as he hung up the phone.

“Awesome, see you guys later!” You said as you collected your things and hurried off to meet Axel and his group. 

“Kay...call us if you die.” He sighed, thinking you were already running away and out of earshot before he could even put the phone away.  

By now, you knew the city of Luca at least a little bit, and knew enough to get to the big open plaza where the monument Roxas mentioned was. From there, it really wasn’t hard to spot the two flaming red heads arguing in public while Demyx tried desperately to get them to lower their voices. 

“I want to go, too!” Reno was saying as you approached. 

“Then skip the game.” Axel said, in a tone that was remarkably similar to the one you adopted while talking to Gippal. 

“No!” Reno snapped, and Axel scoffed. 

“You see the issue there, right?” 

“There’s no issue, just wait until after the game.” 

“Roxas said she needs to leave now, so—”

“Yeah, now. Right now. So…” You said as you walked up, taking Axel’s arm and trying to lead him off. Only problem was, you didn’t know where their ship was, so you were basically just tugging on his sleeve like an impatient toddler.  

“What’s so important?” Demyx asked, seeing how antsy you were. 

“Gotta beat Gippal.”

“Oh hell yeah. If this is something to do with putting him in his place, I’m all yours.” Axel smirked and you beamed at him. 

“Knew I could count on you.”

“And this can’t wait three hours?” Reno looked desperately jealous at the sight of you and his brother having a moment. 

“Sorry Reno, but no. I need to move fast if I’m gonna stay ahead of them.” 

“You on the run from them, or something?” Demyx asked. 

“No, no, no, it’s just this bet we have going—I don’t have time for this, we have to go now. Last chance.” You offered the two of them one final opportunity to join you, but they exchanged a conflicted look. 

“But it’s the Al Bhed Psyches vs. the Luca Goers...that’s like the match up of the century.” Reno sighed.

“Why are you two fangirling over teams you didn’t even know existed until three weeks ago?” Axel shook his head at them and they both scoffed like that was the rudest thing they’d ever heard. 

“You play blitz, how can you not care?” 

“Am I playing tonight?” He asked, and they shrugged, “Then I don’t care.”

“You sure hate sports a lot for somebody who plays them nearly all year round.”

“I’m a doer, not a watcher.”

“Sorry, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. Wish we could come, but…” Demyx began, trailing off with a  sheepish smile and a small shrug. 

“No worries, enjoy your game. Axel?” 

“After you. We parked on the highroad to avoid traffic.” He said, and with that the two of you took off down the street and up to the Mi’ihen Highroad. He opened the door to the gummi ship, and you rushed over to the control to plug the coordinates for Mt. Gagazet into the auto-pilot while he got everything else ready for take off. 

“Your ship smells like cheetos and cologne.” You commented as you took a seat and moved a bag of chips out of the way. 

“That’s the title of my memoir, how’d you know?” He laughed, happy to take the co-pilot’s seat and let you do all the work. You’d set up takeoffs and landings for your boys enough to know how to do it yourself now. 

“Zack’s too, except instead of cheetos it’s jerky. Or bacon. His whole corner of the room just smells like protein and shower gel.” 

“At least he’s a good boy and bathes regularly.” 

“He works out so much that if he didn’t there’d be a whole new kind of funk coming out of that room.” 

“Gippal’s socks?” He smirked knowingly. 

“Who needs chloroform when you’ve got a pile of those laying around?” You laughed, and he sighed reminiscently.

“You know, they were my trip partners last year. You’re bringing back all kinds of nostalgia for me.” 

“Oh. Well I hope you don’t mind that we’re on a mission to kick their sorry asses.” 

“You think remembering being forced to share a room with Gippal’s sock pile is gonna make me wanna toast his ass less? They’re going down.” 

“You’re a real man after my own heart, you know that?” You shot him a smirk briefly before returning your attention to flying the ship, and he sat back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. 

“Oh, I know, believe me. Punch the thrusters, let’s get this show on the road already.”

∞     

“You know, you’re lucky. We were sledding in Macalania earlier this week, so we picked up some heavy duty snow gear.” Axel said as the ship neared its destination. He had wandered into the back room a few minutes ago, then reappeared dressed in some snow boots, long black pants, and a fur lined coat with thick looking gloves and a black beanie thrown over messy red hair. He dropped what you assumed was a collection of Reno and Demyx’s snow gear into the seat next to you to pick through. 

“Sledding must have been fun.” You said as you let him replace you in the pilot’s chair while you rummaged through the pile of clothes. 

“It was. If you haven’t been to Macalania yet, you’re missing out. There’s this massive lake that’s completely frozen over, so we got to hang out sledding, skating, and playing pickup games of hockey with the locals.” 

“We made it to the woods once for a job, but never got far enough in to see the lake or the temple.” You explained as you picked out your outfit. Both sets of clothes were too big for you, but you went with the closest fitting gloves and coat, and pulled on a pair of pants overtop of your leggings for an extra layer. You didn’t look quite as cool as Axel in his all black and kind of stealthy looking gear, but it would do.  

“Note to self: ≈≈≈≈≈≈ and Demyx wear the same size.” He laughed as he looked over at you while you adjusted the beanie so it was fully covering your ears. 

“I wish, this could get embarrassing.” You laughed as you undid the drawstring of the pants to show him how they would fall around your ankles without a nice tight knot around the waist.

“Well, if all else fails you can just moon the fiend you’re after.  Maybe it’ll laugh itself to death.”

“You say that like it’s a joke, but that’s our plan B most of the time.

”Seriously?” He asked and you shot him a look. He just shrugged and said, “What? You never know with Gippal.”

“Look, there it is. You ready?” You asked, looking out the window at the icy, imposing mountain fast approaching out the window. You could actually see the gale force winds knocking snow off the tall peaks, and the  higher up you looked the heavier the snowstorm seemed to be raging.

“Here’s hoping ol’ Shrek is hiding on a low slope, eh?” Axel mumbled, seeing how bad the weather was. 

“You’ve never actually seen a Spiran ogre, have you?” You chuckled, thinking if his expectations were giant green men with funny accents, he’d be sorely disappointed. Spiran ogres were around ten feet tall, woolly, and had four arms. It was more like a yeti than an ogre, you thought, but then again nobody asked your opinion when naming fiends. The species of ogre you were looking for, the Bashura, was actually covered in purple and black fur. 

“Hey, a fiend’s a fiend to me, I’m just along for the ride. You do the differentiating.”

“You got it.” You said, taking a seat to prepare for landing, “Man...just looking at it is making me cold.” You sighed.

“Remember why we’re here. Let the burning desire to trash Gippal keep you warm.” He replied, taking the controls of the ship and hitting a few buttons. In just a few minutes, the ship touched down, and it was time to go. 

The ramp lowered into the snowy ground, and a gust of arctic wind hit you like a cold shower.  

“Wow.” You gasped at the sudden temperature change. The wind was blowing so hard it was making the falling snow come into the ship. 

“Oh my god.” Axel sighed regretfully, realizing what he had signed up for. 

“We’re gonna kick Gippal’s ass...we’re gonna kick Zack’s ass. I’m gonna win the bet.” You recited to yourself as you took a few shuffling steps down the ramp and into the snow. 

Axel closed the ramp behind you, and then he walked out a few steps and put his hands on his hips, “It’s not that bad out here, really.” 

“Yeah, okay.” You rolled your eyes as you hugged yourself for warmth before trudging along down the path. There was supposed to be an Al Bhed travel agency nearby that sold snowmobiles, so you just had to tough it out until you found the shop. 

After a couple minutes of walking you finally found the shop, but there was only one snowmobile left. 

“Zicd uha?” You asked the shopkeeper, while Axel stood behind you looking glazed over. Why nobody from Traverse Town thought it might be fun to learn Al Bhed was beyond you. 

“Cunno, cusa udran kio zicd nahdat uid dra udran drnaa.” The man shrugged. 

“Tu oui ghuf fryd ra haatat dryd syho vun?” 

“Ra cyet ra fyc cusa pek ranu, yht haatat dras vun rec veaht rihdehk days. Cusadrehk ypuid y Bashura." He explained, and your eyes went wide.  

“No!” 

“What? What is it?” Axel tuned back in as soon as he heard your surprise.  

“Some other asshole is after  _ my  _ fiend,” You explained as you got out your money,  “Kessa dra mycd uha. Vycd.” 

The shop owner took your cash and handed you a set of keys and two pairs of goggles. Axel looked to you for an explanation, but you just grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and led him outside. 

“What’s going on?” 

“You wanna drive, or should I?” You ignored him, taking the beanie off so you could put the goggles on. 

“I’ll drive. What’s going on?” He asked again, putting his goggles on and sitting on the snowmobile. You handed him the keys and hopped on behind him. 

“He said some other guy just came through here and bought out all the snowmobiles to go after the Bashura. Called him a ‘big hero,’ or at least the guy called himself that.” You explained while you hooked your arms around his waist as he began to drive. 

“Uh-oh. That sounds like it might be Zack.” 

“Drive fast.” You sighed, tightening your grip on him as he began to accelerate up the mountain path. The higher speed meant you felt the abrasively cold wind stinging your cheeks and nose even worse than it already was, but at this point if you didn’t get to the fiend first you’d have put yourself through all this cold  for nothing. At least you were able to lean against Axel and take in some of the heat he was radiating. 

The mountain was steep as hell, and you were so thankful you didn’t have to go by foot. There were fresh snowmobile tracks leading the way up the path to the summit, so hopefully they weren’t too far ahead of you. A few fiends tried to get in your way, but you were able to take them out with some magic without needing to slow down. 

“None of these guys doing it for you? Can’t we just pretend you got what you came for?” Axel sighed after you shot a flying fiend out of the sky before it could get in your way. He considered himself good in the cold, but this was just miserable. 

“Not unless you wanna pay me for them. Sorry, I knew this would suck, but I didn’t think it’d be this bad.” 

“It’s okay. I can think of worse ways to spend my night….well, I mean, I probably couldn’t, but I’m appreciating the close personal contact.” He smirked, and you gave a scoffing laugh.

“If I thought it could keep me warm, I’d snuggle up to one of Gippal’s socks.” 

“Are you hitting on me?” He asked sarcastically, and you laughed before giving him a light squeeze around the waist.

“There’s no one else I’d rather be trapped in an icy grave with. And that’s coming from the heart.”      

“Aww, you really—wait, who’s that?” He stopped fooling around as the snowmobile got to the top of the steep slope you were on and things started to level out. Now that you weren’t just looking at snowy incline and could actually see what was out in front of you, you saw a group of people blocking the road with their snowmobiles. 

“Hey, you there. Stop!” A man called out as you got closer. He was big, dressed in all white snow gear, and seemed to be the leader of this little pack of people. 

“Well, that’s not Zack.” You mumbled, “Think we should stop?”

“I’m gonna gun it.” Axel said, and you saw his fingers drum on the throttle like he was seriously considering it. 

“Hey! It’s not safe ahead, you have to stop!” The man yelled again, and Axel sighed. He began to pump the breaks, seeing that they had blocked the road ahead and he didn’t really have a choice. 

“You a ranger or something?” Axel asked, taking his goggles off so he could get a clear look at who he was dealing with. You did the same, and hopped off the back of the snowmobile to have a chat since it didn’t seem like they were going to get out of your way. 

“A ranger? You tellin’ me you don’t recognize the leader of NORA?” One of the guys off to your right who was leaning against a snowmobile asked. 

“Nora? What the hell is that?” Axel asked you quietly, and you shrugged, just a clueless as he was. You had no idea what that was or who these people were. Their faces were mostly covered by their hats, goggles, and scarves, but you got the feeling you wouldn’t know who they were even if they weren’t covered up.

“You’re kidding right?” 

“NORA? Leading fiend hunters in Spira and just about every other world we get to? Head of the neighborhood watch, heroes for hire?” 

You and Axel exchanged a look, both wondering if this was real life or some cold induced hallucination. 

“It’s alright, Gadot.” The large, blonde leader said, “These two probably just got lost on their way to the hot springs.” 

“Yeah...yeah, we’re just lost on our way to the springs. Can you get out of our way now? Axel asked, starting to get impatient. 

“No can do, friend. There’s a dangerous fiend prowling the area up ahead. We can’t let you through until we’ve taken care of the threat. It’s not safe for a little lady like yourself.” He said, looking at you directly. If you didn’t know any better, you would have sworn you saw him trying to flex through his snowsuit to impress you.

“I think I’ll be okay.” You tried to keep the sass out of your tone, but frankly you were so put off by his whole macho demeanor that it was a real challenge.

“The name’s Snow. Snow Villiers. I’d be happy to escort your lady friend down the mountain. Free of charge.”

“How kind.” Axel rolled his eyes. 

“I’m always looking out for the little folk. Just remember who it was that saved the day for you.” He winked, completely oblivious to the utter hatred oozing from you both. 

“Am I an asshole for wanting to punch this guy? Like, we just met and all, and I know I need to work on my violent tendencies, but I really wanna punch him.” You said quietly to Axel, who scoffed. 

“Please, just look at him. He’s begging to be punched.” 

“Don't worry, baby. Your hero has arrived.” The man, Snow, began to walk over and extended his hand for you. 

“Fucking hell.” Axel muttered under his breath while you took a step back and put a hand on your hip. 

“Look man, I’m here for the Bashura and you’re slowing me down.” You reached the limit for how much bullshit you were willing to take from this guy. 

“You can't be serious.” He looked a little dumbfounded, though you couldn't tell if it was because of what you had said or if it was because you didn't take his hand. 

“We ’ re serious.” Axel said, and the guy seemed to glare at him. 

“How can you let a girl like this go with you on a hunt? You trying to get her killed?” 

Axel scoffed and was about to tell him that you were the hunter here, not him, but you put a hand up to stop him. You knew better than to try and talk sense into his type. 

“You leave the girl at home and bring her back the trophy, man. That's how it's done.” The other guy, Gadot, said, walking over. 

“And in exchange, you get the hero’s kiss of admiration from the damsel. You don't go around throwing them into distress in the hopes of gaining some savior points with her. That's just not cool.” The other guy who was still sitting over by the snowmobiles said. 

“Oh my god.” You felt your eyes roll so hard into the back of your head that you almost blacked out a little due to sheer stupidity. 

“Who the hell are you people?” Axel finally asked, not sure he had heard such misogynistic bullshit before in his life. 

“This way, miss.” He tried to reach for you again, but this time the sharpness of your glare stopped him dead in his tracks. 

“You think if you block my path and drag me down the mountain kicking and screaming that I'll be so grateful I just won't be able to stop myself from giving you your ‘hero’s kiss’?” You asked, giving him a dry look and using finger quotations to further mock them. 

The three men exchanged a glance and shrug like that seemed like a completely foolproof plan to them. 

“I've got something you can kiss alright.” Axel said, looking like he was about to start swinging if any of them got anywhere near you, and an idea struck you. You turned to Axel and pulled him closer by the collar of his coat until you were able to press your lips to his. He was as surprised as they were, but didn't let that stop him from kissing you back. Once he got what was going on and leaned into you, you stopped pulling him down and instead began to run your fingers through his hair. You were doing this to prove a point, but he was so warm and such a surprisingly good kisser that you kinda forgot about your audience for a couple of seconds. 

“Aw…” You heard a dejected sigh from one of the three men, and suddenly you remembered where you were and what you were doing.  

When you finally snapped back to reality, you pulled away just enough to ask, “You consent to this, right?” just quietly enough that they wouldn't be able to hear you but he still could. 

“Wha—yeah. Yes! Of course I do!” He shot you a look like he was almost more confused that you had to ask than he was confused that you started kissing him in the first place. In all fairness though, he had never really ever expressed any interest in kissing you, and maybe his competitive rage mode wasn’t as severe as yours so maybe his mind didn’t instantly go to ‘make out right in front of them.’ Apparently it did, because as soon as he had finished answering you he was back to showering you in kisses. He bit your lower lip and pulled at your hair playfully, and you moaned loudly so you knew everyone could hear how much you were enjoying kissing him. 

Snow sighed and looked away, scratching his cheek awkwardly, while the other two shuffled their feet around in the snow sheepishly. 

You figured they got the point by the time you started running out of air, so you turned to give the men another sharp look before saying, “Move your shit or I’ll move it for you. Come on.” You gestured for Axel to get back on the snowmobile. He did, and you waited until you were sitting comfortably and the motor was up and fully running for the guys to move their own snowmobiles out of the way. They were being sluggish and were taking their sweet time, so you decided to speed things along. You used some ice magic to harden the snow under their snowmobiles so you could slide them off to one side and out of your way. You even iced the treads so they wouldn't be able to get them up and running any time soon. Once you killed the Bashura and were on your way back down the mountain you'd unfreeze them so those men weren’t stranded up here, but until then you didn't want them coming after you and interfering. 

“You're kind of my hero.” Axel said to you as he started the snowmobile and began to motor past Snow and his gang while they tried to figure out what was going on with their rides. 

“Yeah, my superpower is being an asshole.” 

“Hey, stick with what you're good at I always say. Besides, you're not an asshole. You're like...the unbridled goddess of rage, reincarnated to strike down other assholes.” 

“I'm so flattered.” You laughed, thinking that was a pretty nice way for someone to describe your temper. 

“That's what I'm here for.” He shrugged, and you stopped talking so you could focus on spotting your fiend. According to your fiend glossary, Bashura usually kept to their caves and stayed away from humans, but if this one had a bounty on its head it must have meant something had aggravated it enough to make it leave its nest and start terrorizing the cliffs. 

You heard a wailing roar off in the distance as you climbed ever higher on the seemingly eternal mountain peeks.  

“I think that's our guy.” Axel mumbled nervously. 

“Eyes forward. It can't be far now.” You said, thinking it was more important for him to keep focused on driving while you looked around. “Up there, on that flat.” You pointed from over his shoulder to the top of a slope a few yards away where you saw a furious looking fiend with purple fur and four large, powerful looking arms. 

“Oh goodie…it's pissed.” 

“So are we, right?” You asked and he shrugged. 

“I just got to make out with someone to stick it to some colossal douchebags with a scenic mountain behind me. I'm pretty good right now, actually.” 

“Well, at least your last thoughts will be happy ones.”

“What was that?” 

“Pull over here. Let's sneak up on foot.” You said, pointing out a nice spot that was still out of the Bashura’s sight without being too far away. 

“You're the boss.” He said, pulling over and doing as you said. 

The two of you crept up the rest of the peak on foot, and found the thrashing fiend waiting for you at the top.  Its  back was to you, so you tried to signal for Axel to stay put while you took care of it, but he wasn’t getting it. Apparently Zack never taught him the SOLDIER hand signals...or maybe he just made them up recently for your sake and told you they were legit.  

You both took a small step forward to try to get in closer, but the snow under your feet was crunching loudly as you went. There was no way you would be able to sneak up on it, so you’d just have to strike first. 

You held up your arm to stop Axel, and aimed a bolt of lighting for the giant fiend’s head. You were hoping to stun it with the lightning so it couldn’t retaliate while you whipped up a maelstrom of elements to throw at it, but it didn’t exactly have the desired effect. 

The fiend’s head whipped around to see what had hit it after it’s thick and insulative fur absorbed almost all of the shock. It did next to nothing except make the fiend mad. You didn’t even have time to finish mumbling “Shit” under your breath before it charged at you with arms raised. 

It was wicked fast and charged you like a mad bull, practically frothing at the mouth at the sight of the two of you. You barely had time to stop spell casting and throw an arm into Axel to knock him back a few feet so he would be behind you and in the radius of your protect spell. You threw up the barrier and it rammed you full speed, sending you skidding several feet before you finally broke your shield to retaliate. You and Axel both began bombarding it with fire, until it ran at you through the flames and swung it’s powerful fists at you like battering rams. You managed to dodge two of his fists, but then he hit Axel with one and you lost your focus. Axel went rolling backwards down the mountain slope, and you took your eyes off the Bashura’s fourth arm a little too early. The next thing you knew, you were flying through the air and slammed into the rough, rocky side of the mountain feeling like you had just been hit in the ribs by a semi truck. You tumbled down from the rocks and landed on your face into the cold snow with only a second's time to react to the charging fiend as it came over to finish you off. But that wasn't going to happen, you decided, gritting your teeth and striking your hand against the snow in front of you. Large spires of thick and sharp ice sprouted from the ground and pierced the fiend through the chest as it charged full speed into the razor sharp points. With a grunt of effort you forced yourself up to your feet and forced the ice to move along the ground where you wanted, pushing the fiend closer and closer to the edge of the flat. You saw pyreflies begin to fly from the stab wound around the ice, but it would have been cruel to wait for it to die slowly. Fiends weren't animals, even if they looked like it. They were the souls of people who died and weren't sent to the farplane, who were cursed to walk the earth long after their time had passed. The sorrow and ruminating sadness of being forever trapped on this plane of existence would twist their souls into monstrous forms until the outside finally reflected the negativity inside. All the same, it felt like killing them was something you should try to do quickly to minimize the infliction of more pain on them. 

With one last great push of effort, your hands became engulfed in light blue light as the ice spires extended over the edge of the flat and took the fiend with it. You allowed the ice to shatter over the edge, and as it fell so did the Bashura. The force of all the magic ripped through the palms and fingers of your gloves, and you had to shake off the residual ice magic to get your hands to stop steaming with magic. You looked at your palms in wonder, thinking that was some crazy adrenaline rush to have made the ice magic that strong.  You walked over to the edge to make sure it was dead, and saw a sea of pyreflies had erupted from where the fiend landed. The pyreflies danced as they floated up to where you were and some even circled around you like they were thanking you for freeing the trapped soul within the fiend before continuing their assent to the heavens. 

It almost made you feel happy, until you remembered the throbbing of your ribs. 

“Axel, you okay?” You asked, remembering that he had taken a hit during the fight and turning back to look for him. 

“No.” He grumbled, slowly appearing from the slope he had slid down after being pushed, “I mean, physically, yeah. But emotionally? You make me look like a chump. Like a goddamn amature. How am I supposed to feel about that?” 

“You know I only keep you around for your looks, Red.” You teased him, then adopted a more serious tone before asking, “How's the shoulder?” 

He held a hand over his left shoulder and rolled it back and forward a little like it was hurt. If it was injured, he was brushing it off like it wasn't, saying, “Fine. I barely use this arm anyways. What about you?” 

You put a hand over the ribs on your right side and grimaced a little in pain, “Think he might have broken a few ribs, but I've got others.” 

“I would have thought you were a one-hit-kill kind of Hunter.” He commented as he joined you by the cliff’s edge, where pyreflies were still rising slowly. 

“Now where’s the fun in that?” You scoffed, then noticed Snow and his gang riding by the mass of pyreflies. Apparently someone in their gang had some magic abilities, because they were able to unfreeze their snowmobiles without your help. They slowed to a stop when they saw the mass of pyreflies, knowing something big must have died for that many to be floating around. They gaped at you both from below, looking genuinely surprised that you had managed to kill the Bashura. 

You just smirked proudly to yourself as you pulled out your phone to confirm the kill and mark the hunting contract as complete while Axel gave them a snide wave. The reward would be wired into your account at the hunter’s HQ, but frankly you didn't want to be traveling around with as much money as you had earned, so you were just going to leave it at HQ until it was time to tally up all of your hunts and get one big payday that you could take over to a bank or something. 

“I don't know about you, but I could use a hot spring trip.” Axel said once you were finished and had walked away from the edge now that the show was over. 

“Oh my god, yes.” You sighed, feeling exhausted and frozen to the bone. Thawing out in a nice hot spring was exactly what you needed. The two of you returned to the snowmobile and continued along the path to the summit. 

∞

It was still a pretty long trip to get to the summit, but without the pressure of needing to find the fiend before anyone else, it was much less stressful than before. Especially knowing you were going to a hot spring. You would take Mt. Gagazet over Bikanel Island any day, but the cold was really starting to get to you by the time you made it to the springs. It was kind of nice though because the cold was acting as a bit of a pain killer on your ribs, like you were too numb to feel hurt. You also hadn’t noticed any stigma pains since getting to the mountain, but it’s not like living on a mountain in the middle of frozen-over nowhere was really the solution you were looking for in life. 

There was a cave you had to enter to get to the spring itself, so you got off the snowmobile and started to enter on foot. The cave was completely protected from the harsh winds, and there was a noticeable temperature difference inside. “I think we’re here.” Axel said excitedly, and sure enough a few more steps and you came around the curve of the cave wall and saw a vast, steamy wonderland before you of swirling warm water. 

“This was such a good call.” You said as you began to kick off your boots and remove your gloves. You didn’t have a bathing suit with you, but you weren’t about to let that stop you. 

“You should bring me along more. I’m not just a hot piece of ass, I have ideas sometimes.” 

“Yeah, whatever. Help me get undressed.”

He raised an eyebrow and shot you an amused look, “‘Scuse me?” 

“Shut up, I can’t bend over.” You explained, holding a hand over your ribs and trying, but it just wasn’t going to happen.

“Fine, force my hand, why don’t you?” He said dramatically as he walked over and began to help you get out of your big coat. You really couldn’t twist your torso or bend at all...basically you couldn’t do anything that required you to shift your ribs. He had to pull the coat off you after you unzipped it, and then you untied your pants drawstring and let gravity take them down to your ankles where you stepped out of them very carefully so you were just in your leggings and T-shirt while he began to undress too. 

“This is a fun game.” He mused as you had to help him get his injured arm out of the long sleeve of his shirt. 

“Oh yeah? Pretty sure it’s called stripping. If you really like it, you can probably make some good money.” 

“You hunt your monsters, I’ll take up pole dancing. We’ll have a fortune in no time.” He smirked. You saw the undershirt he had on and couldn’t stifle your scoffing laugh. 

“Are you kidding me?” You shook your head at him, reading the front of the maroon tank top that read ‘fire hazard’ in faded print while he pulled his hair up into a messy bun. 

“Reno got it as a joke.” 

“And yet you're wearing it.” 

“I liked the joke.”

“Of course you did.” You laughed, beginning the tedious process of trying to get your shirt off without hurting yourself. If you just moved really, really slowly, everything was fine. By the time you got it off, Axel was down to his boxer briefs.

“Need help with your pants?” He asked, trying to avert his eyes from your bra by looking at anything other than your chest, turning his back to give you some privacy. 

“I’m uh…” You paused sheepishly, not sure if he needed this information or not, but what the hell, “I’m not wearing underwear...so these are staying on.” You had been wearing your leggings as pants before coming on this trip to the mountain, and you didn’t want an underwear line or to have to deal with a thong, so...yeah. 

He blinked in amused disbelief then ran a hand through his hair as he tried to process what you had said. He just kept his back to you and mumbled, “I think I love you.” 

“What was that?” You raised an eyebrow at him, not quite sure what he said but pretty sure you knew it was something bad.  

“Nothing. Nothing. Just...gonna get in the water now...don’t mind me.” He rambled as he skirted around you to get over to the edge of the spring. He took a step in and let out a relaxed sigh, “That’s so nice, oh my— _ oh my god! _ ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, I think you need to go to a hospital” He half-yelled as he turned back to look at you, startling you. 

“What? Why?” You asked as you looked down at yourself. It didn’t take more than a second to see what he was talking about. A sprawling bruise was covering most of your side, and was a nasty shade of purple. You could actually see the distinct imprint of the different knuckles and the spaces between the fingers of the fiend. 

“I thought you were joking about having broken ribs!” 

“I was.” You mumbled, taking a step into the water anyway. You would have liked to feel the nice spring water on your legs directly, but it was still nice even with your leggings on.  

“≈≈≈≈≈≈!” He scolded you, seeing that you were just going to ignore it and go about this like it was a spa trip. 

“Come on, I’m freezing! It doesn’t even hurt that badly. We can go find a healer right after, I swear.” 

“How can that not hurt?” He gaped at you as you continued to slowly sink into the water. 

“I didn’t say that it doesn’t hurt at all. Just not  _ that _ badly.” You mumbled, thinking that with all the experience you had doing pain management mediation and the painkilling cold, it kinda made some sense that you weren’t debilitated by your injury even if it did hurt.  

“Five minutes. You get five minutes, and I’m yanking you off to see Demyx.”  He gave in, seeing that you really needed a seconds worth of relaxation and knowing how stubborn you could be. 

You sighed contently as you slipped into the warm water until just your shoulders were above the water's surface, and you closed your eyes. It felt like the cold had been draining the life out of you, and the warm water was slowly bringing it back. It even felt kind of nice against the throbbing in your side. 

“Make it ten.” You said, then added a “Please?” for good measure. It looked like he wanted to fight you on it, but ultimately gave up. 

“Fine. Ten minutes and we’re out of here.” He wanted to be more firm with you, but knew that you were kind of on the same wavelength as Zack and Gippal, so there wasn’t much arguing with you. Besides, it’s not like he wasn’t enjoying having a breather out of the cold, and the soothingly warm water was just what his arm needed. 

∞

(Optional Romance Scene)

“Would you relax? I know my limits, and I can handle this.” You said, seeing how unsure he still looked. 

“Well, fine. You can handle it, but what about me? I think I might have really landed funny on my arm.” 

“Okay, then you can go first when we get to Demyx.” You smirked, knowing exactly what he was up to. 

He sighed heavily, knowing you saw through him, and decided to just shut up and try and enjoy himself while he could. A few minutes later, he was just leaning his back against the rocks and soaking it all in when suddenly you asked, “It really hurts, doesn’t it?” 

He didn’t realize it, but he had been rolling his shoulder around to try and soothe it, “Yeah, but I’m not gonna go complaining about it in front of you.” 

“Because it wouldn’t seem manly and cool?” You scoffed, “Please, I’ve seen Cloud eat only the marshmallows in his cereal and the only ‘cooking’ I’ve ever seen him do is adding powder to all the milk to make it strawberry flavored ‘cuz he likes it better than regular milk. And Zack likes to use ladies shower products, while Gippal buffs and files his nails more than I do. I don’t think manly and cool exists for me anymore.” 

“I meant I’m not gonna complain about a tweaked shoulder to the girl with half a dozen broken ribs, but that’s good to know.” 

“I have a very high pain tolerance.” 

“Couldn’t really be our rage goddess if you went down in one hit.” He said, and you found that you couldn’t keep the smile off your face as he said that compliment again. It’s like he knew you were slightly insecure about how quickly you went from 0 to 100, and how it wasn’t exactly a praiseworthy trait, and yet he was using it to compliment you like he enjoyed that aspect of your personality. 

You found yourself blushing slightly, feeling far more vulnerable now somehow then you did a few minutes ago when you were literally stripping down in front of him. 

“Hey, Axel?” You forced yourself to speak, even if you were blushing and felt embarrassed, “Thanks for coming here with me.” 

“I told you, I’ve got your back. Next time I’ll try and watch some other bits too, like those poor little ribs you got there.” He joked, but you tried not to let him derail you from trying to thank him. You always kind of thought of him as just being friends with your friends, but you were starting to think of him as your friend now, too.       

“Really, I mean it. I know I probably shouldn’t have asked you to, and I know you got hurt because of me, but I’m also really glad you came.” 

“I’m glad I did, too. I never have this much fun in an afternoon with Reno and Demyx. And don’t worry about the arm. You can make it up to me with a shoulder rub.” He shot you a smirk with a playful glint in those emerald eyes so infectious you couldn’t help but smile. 

“You sure about that? I’m not very good at back rubs. Might hurt you even more.” You warned him, but he swam over to you all the same and turned around so his back was to you.

“Gimme your worst.” He challenged in a joking tone, and you shook your head as you brought your hands up to the warm skin of his shoulders. He shuddered at your touch then laughed and said, “Tingly.” Just as his skin was always running hot from his fire elemental type, yours was always charged lightly with electricity. 

“Just be happy I didn’t accidentally shock you. If I had gil for every time that happened, I wouldn’t need to hunt fiends.” You mumbled, trying to ignore him and focus on what you were doing. His skin was surprisingly soft, you thought, and you couldn’t help but notice the light freckling on his sun kissed shoulders. You always thought of him as being kind of lanky and lean, but you were starting to realize just how muscular he was as you pressed your fingers into him. You let your hands rest on his shoulders and rolled your thumbs up and down the sides of the back of his neck with a good bit of pressure, causing him to let out a relaxed sigh. 

“I don’t know what you were talking about. You’re great at this.” 

“Beginner's luck, I guess. But that’s all you get, my hands are cramping up.” You said, pulling your hands away and cracking your knuckles after feeling them go stiff from rubbing after a few minutes.  

“Do you want one?” He asked, turning around to face you  

“No way. I’m way too ticklish.” You quickly said, shrinking away from him as much as you could with your back against the rocks and nowhere to go really. 

“How about a hand massage then?” He offered, holding out his hand for you. 

“A hand massage?” You raised an eyebrow, intrigued yet skeptical that that was a real thing. 

“Yeah, c’mon. Black mages hold a lot of tension in their hands, so it feels really nice.” He waved his fingers to urge you to give him your hand, and you finally gave in. He flipped it so it was palm up, then wrapped his fingers around your hand so his thumb was pressing firmly into the center of your palm and he began to work out tension you didn’t even know you had. You watched him carefully, trying to figure out what he was doing and why it felt so nice, because it really didn’t look like much was going on. He was just rolling his thumb over the different parts of your palm, and then pressing into your fingers with a strong grip and stretching them back before rolling your wrists around, but it felt amazing. Especially since you felt like your fingers were going to freeze and fall off up here on the mountain. 

“So if I hadn’t come along, do you think you’d be in a group with Zack and Gippal again this year?” You asked, trying to come up with something to talk about so you weren’t just sitting there silently through this whole thing. 

“Eh, maybe. We like to switch it up each year, so this might have happened anyway.” He said, finishing up with your first hand and taking the other, “We do normally tend to meetup with other people more while out on the trip, but I guess everyone’s been keeping themselves pretty busy this year. You guys especially.” 

“That’s true. We haven’t stayed in one place for more than a day or two in weeks. What have you guys done?” 

“Blitz, surfing, sightseeing, exploring. You name it. Still, today was fun. Maybe we’ll take up hunting.”   

“You’re always welcome to join us...uh, you know, when we finally all get back together again.”

“In the meantime, I don’t mind helping out just ⅓ of the dream team. The better ⅓, I say.” 

“Aw, sweet talk me, why don’t you?” You laughed, tucking your hair behind your ear after your laughter made it fall in your face. 

“Hey...there’s one more thing you could do for me.” He began and you shrugged as if to ask what it was, “Tell me, did you actually want to kiss me? Would you have done it if it wasn’t to show up those dickheads?”   

“Would I have made out with you on a random mountain if it wasn’t for those guys? Probably not.” You admitted, then after seeing his expression fall you quickly added, “Not because I didn’t want to kiss you, but, I mean, I didn’t really have any reason to.” 

“You don’t need a reason, you can just do it if you want to.” He shrugged, and you laughed. 

“So, what, I should just walk up and start making out with whoever whenever the urge strikes me?”  

“Well, maybe not with just anybody, but with me, why not? As long as it’s what you wanna do, I say do it.” 

“The benefits of being friends with you?” You raised an eyebrow at him, and he smirked. 

“If that’s what you wanna call it, fine by me. Listen, life’s shit wall to wall, so I say make the most of the good things. It doesn’t need to be muddied up by emotion or over-thinking, just find something that makes you feel good, and hold onto it while you can.” He shrugged and you thought about it for a second. 

“So, if I were to say I want you to kiss me for no other reason than I’m feeling bored, you’d say…?” You asked, tilting your head to the side slightly, causing your hair to fall from behind your ear and block your eyes again. 

“I’d say the lady gets what the lady wants.” He said in a low tone, running his hand through your hair as he leaned in ever so slightly. 

“That was a hypothetical.” You mumbled, biting your lip in anticipation as he moved in painfully slowly. 

“Oh yeah?” He asked, though it was pretty clear by the look in his eye that he didn’t care. He was moving slow on purpose, so you would have to be the one to make the final move. At this point there was no reason to back down, so you leaned in to finally close the gap between your lips. As soon as you did, he stopped playing around and got serious. Not that you were super experienced, but you knew a good kiss when you felt one and he was an amazing kisser. It was just something about the way he moved, like everything was deliberate and for your benefit. Every nip at your lower lip and tug at your hair, even the way he used his hand to cup your cheek and angle your face differently every couple of seconds made it feel exciting and full of passion. He even knew when you were out of breath, and pulled your hair so you turned your head to the side so he could trail kisses down your jawline and neck. It was a completely new experience for you, and it felt surprisingly nice to have your neck kissed while you tangled your fingers in his hair and his hands gripped your hips. 

He tried to move from kissing just below your jawline down to where your neck and shoulder met, but your ticklish skin couldn't handle it any more. You couldn't stop yourself from laughing and crunching your neck to try and stop him from tickling you anymore. You felt him smile against you and go in harder, making you laugh even more as you tried to squirm away. Laughter turned into a sharp gasp of pain as all your wiggling around made you hurt your ribs, “Ow, ow, shit. Stop, don't make me laugh.” You groaned, pushing him away so you could hold a hand over your side.

“Sorry. I'm sorry.” He apologized, trying to bring a hand up to fix your hair, but overworking his hurt arm in the process. He sucked in air through his teeth and sighed heavily, “Maybe we should rain check until after we get fixed up a bit.” 

“Yeah, good idea.” You said through a strained tone as you tried to find a position that didn't hurt to sit in once you pulled away from him. 

“We’ll get you some help soon.” 

“Five more minutes.” You pleaded, slinking into the water and trying to relax again. 

∞

You had closed your eyes and were leaning back against the rocks, trying to enjoy your last few minutes in the hot spring when something stung your ankle. 

“Ow!” You shot upright, scaring the shit out of Axel a few feet away. 

“What? Your ribs?” 

“No! I think I just got bit by something.” You mumbled uncomfortably, pulling your knees into your chest, “Are there fish in here?” 

“I don't think so...maybe? Can fish live in hot water?” 

“I don't know, but—Ow!” Again, a sharp snapping sensation nipped at your ankle. You raised your foot out of the water, and gasped, “Oh fuck!” You shot out of the water, forgetting all about your rib pain and sprinting over to the pile of clothes. 

“What is it? What's going on?” He jumped up after you, trying to figure out why you were suddenly so eager to leave and panicky. 

“Look,” you rolled up your pant leg to reveal the small distress beacon Gippal had given you, “It’s our emergency signal. If one of us gets in trouble, we push this button and it alerts the others to our location.” You explained pulling out your phone and trying to remember how to use the app that let you see the location of your teammates. 

“So what does that mean?” Axel asked, as you made a whirlwind of air around yourself to try and dry off a little before you started pulling on clothes. 

“One of my boys is in trouble, that's what.” You sighed, jamming your foot into your boot and pulling a glove on at the same time. 

He quickly pulled on his clothes too, and helped you get your coat back on before heading over to the snowmobile just outside the cave while you threw the snow pants over your shoulder and got on behind him. There was no way you were getting them on with your ribs the way they were, and you didn't have time to waste trying, so you just did your best to dry the leggings with magic before meeting Axel on the back of the the snowmobile. 

“Do we know who's in trouble?” He asked as he hit the throttle once you were on. 

“No, but we have a signal. The distress call is coming from Bevelle.” You said, using one arm to hold onto Axel’s waist and the other to check your phone and make sure you were reading it right. “Hurry.” You sighed, getting a sick feeling in your stomach. 

∞

The two of you went racing to the bottom of the mountain at a breakneck speed, but you were using magic to make little ramps and guardrails so you wouldn't go flying off the mountain. It had taken you almost two hours to get up the mountain, but you got down in less than thirty minutes. You returned the snowmobile by pulling up right in front of the shop and throwing the keys to the Al Bhed shopkeeper when he came out to greet you. From there, you hit the ground running to the gummi ship, and did the quickest launch ever. 

You broke all kinds of air traffic laws, but you didn't care. You were getting to your boys before it was too late. 

You touched down in Bevelle less than fifteen minutes later since it was apparently much closer than you thought, and you tried to spot any kind of danger from the big bridge overlooking the city before taking off to find the exact location of the distress call. Axel had to stay and take care of dealing with the airship parking patrol, but you ran on without him. After around five minutes of running towards the blinking dot on your phone, you ran into Zack. He was also sprinting and looking panicked, but as soon as you called out to him to try and make him stop running, you saw a wave of relief wash over him. 

“Oh thank god, it's only Gippal.” He held a hand over his racing heart as you ran over to him, and he pulled you into a tight hug. That caused you to cry out in pain and wince and pull away from him, “Wh-are you okay?” He asked worriedly as you kept one hand on his chest to keep him away a few feet while the other pressed into your screaming rib cage. 

“No, my ribs are super broken, but we gotta find Gippal.” You said, taking his arm and pulling him along as you continued to run down the streets. It looked like Gippal was inside some large building near the center of the city. 

“Hey, look! Lulu and Auron!” Zack pointed them out to you as you came up on a restaurant with outdoor seating. 

“Lulu! I need your help!” You called out to her, and she and Auron both seemed startled and annoyed that you had found them.  

“Of course you do.” She sighed. 

“Unless Ven's around, then we'll definitely take his help instead.” Zack said, and she looked between the two of you curiously.  “Which one of you is hurt?” 

“I am, but I have something to do first. Will you stay here until I get back?” You said, still unable to look away from the blinking dot on your phone. 

“Can you get Ven here?” Zack asked, and Lulu gave you another look. 

“He's in Kilika, treating some kids who got bad jellyfish stings. How badly are you hurt?” 

“Not badly, just stay here.”

“What happened to you?” Auron asked, thinking you didn’t look particularly injured, though you were holding your side. 

“Got punched by a Bashura. Don’t worry, I got it before it got me...just not totally unscathed.”

“A Bashura?” Auron raised his eyebrow, “I broke an arm the first time I ever fought one.” 

“Why in god’s name did you let ≈≈≈≈≈≈ within punching distance of a Bashura?” Lulu shot Zack a heated look. 

“I, uh...kinda wasn’t there.” He shrugged nervously. 

“Zachary Lionel Fair you explain yourself right this instant.” She seethed, and you snickered. 

“Lionel?” 

“Shut up, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. We have to go.” 

“RIght. We'll be back soon!” You called over your shoulder as you began to dart off down the street again, not wanting to waste any more time. 

A few minutes later, and you found yourself standing in front of…

“A police precinct?” You read the sign above the front door in disbelief. 

“Oh, he better be fucking dead in there.” Zack mumbled pushing open the door and stepping inside. There were a bunch of cops around the place, some standing around talking, some at desks working, and some sitting with criminals and going over paperwork, Gippal among them. 

He was in a metal chair, handcuffed to the arm rest on one side, with an angry looking police officer sitting across from him. 

“Gippal! What the hell?” You seethed at him as you walked over, and Gippal beamed at the sight of you both. 

“There, see? I told you I had people coming to get me.” He sassed the officer, who looked so done with his shit, “You guys will pay my bail, right?” 

“Excuse me?” Zack’s eye twitched. 

“You fired off an emergency signal...for this?” You glared at him. 

“Guys, I’m about to go to prison, could we not?” He shot you both looks, and the officer huffed. 

“What’d he do, anyway?” You asked. 

“Tried to use forbidden machina within a sacred temple of Yevon.” 

“There were fiends in your temple, I was doing you a favor. I’m a hunter, check my license.” 

“You were doing us a favor by defiling our holy place with sacrilegious machinery?” 

You looked at Zack, trying to figure out exactly what was going on, and suddenly feeling stupid for having been so worried and rushing to get here. 

“How much is his bail?” Zack finally asked, since you were so irritated you were at a loss for words. 

“He hasn’t been formally charged yet, but we’re looking at quite of few offences: Bringing forbidden machina into the city, bringing forbidden machina into a temple, bringing an unsheathed weapon into a temple, breaking and entering into the cloister of trials, trespassing—”

“And being an Al Bhed.” Gippal scoffed, knowing that his race was what this was really coming down to. 

“Watch it. You have enough charges stacked against you, do you really wanna push your luck?” The officer glared at him, “If you two want to post his bail, you’ll have to wait until we charge him.” 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈, go back to Lulu. I’ll handle this.” Zack sighed, and you wished there wasn’t an officer watching you, otherwise you would have smacked Gippal upside the head. 

“Yeah. Okay. Call me if you need me. You have my hunter’s ID number right?” You asked, double checking that he would be able to get to the funds you had made from hunting to use as bail money when the time came. Zack checked his phone to see if the note he made with all the team’s ID information was still there. 

“Yeah, I got it. Go get treatment. We’ll be here.” 

“Some of us by choice.” Gippal added, rattling the handcuffs around a little. 

You rolled your eyes and left, heading back to the restaurant.   

∞  

Lulu had taken you back to the main ship to treat you in her lab after you told her it wasn’t something she could look at out in public. You were sitting on a cold metal table struggling to get your shirt off while she stepped out to grab an injury report form from the med bay. 

“Why couldn’t we just do this in the medical room?” You asked, your shirt stuck around your head with your arms in the arm holes at such an angle that you couldn’t wiggle free without hurting yourself. 

“Because there are other students resting in there, and clearly you cannot conduct yourself properly in public.” She tutted at you before helping you. She saw the massive bruise right away and sighed, “Remind me again, what were you doing facing off with a Bashura?” 

“I was hunting it. I’m a fiend hunter.” You shrugged, trying not to let her know how much her poking and prodding hurt as she tried to examine the damage. 

“So I’ve heard. You know I have every confidence in your abilities, but you can’t allow yourself to be so reckless. Trained professionals get killed on missions like that, you shouldn’t have taken it on alone.” 

“I wasn’t alone.” 

“So that’s four broken ribs, and two more fractured. Who do I have to blame for this?” 

“Well, now I’d rather not say. Blame me, I guess.” You mumbled, scratching your cheek as she began the healing process by pressing a glowing white hand to your side. Almost instantly, the edges of the bruise began to recede towards her hand. 

“At any rate, stay with your group next time, it’s dangerous to be alone. Especially if you’re hunting massive, bloodthirsty fiends.” 

“Yeah, alright. Our bet ends tomorrow night anyway.” 

“Bet?” She raised an eyebrow at you. 

“Don’t worry about it.” You shrugged, “So, were you on a date with Sir Auron?” 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈, you make my head hurt.” 

“Aw, come on. You can tell me.” You smirked, and she pressed a little rougher than strictly necessary into your side. 

“Resetting your bones will take some time. It’ll be easier if you don’t talk.” 

You sighed, but shut up so she could work. She didn’t have the same gentle touch as Aqua, or ability to mitigate new pain as soon as it was inflicted during procedures like Ven, but at least she worked fast. She had to press your ribs together by squeezing them, then bind them with magic until they were healed. Needless to say, it did  _ not _ feel good, but it was over in about ten minutes. The fractures were a piece of cake to fix after that.

“Try to keep them in one piece this time, hm?” She said to you when she was finally done. 

“I only promise to try.” You said, and she shot you a look, “Kidding. Just kidding.” 

She shook her head, but let you put your shirt back on while she began to fill out a damage report, “That’s uh...that’s not going to my parents, is it?”    
“Keep making jokes, and it will.” She threatened, and you sighed, “What was so important that you went running off with broken ribs for?”

“Oh...Gippal got himself arrested. We thought he was in trouble, but...well, he is in trouble, but...you know what I mean.” 

“Arrested?” She held a hand up to her forehead, “I don't even know what the school policy is on that.” 

“Don’t worry, we’ll bail him out.”

“Yes, because that will solve everything.” 

“Won’t it?” You shrugged, and she sighed heavily. 

“Just take me to where he’s being held. I’ll take it from here.”

∞

Lulu stormed into the precinct like a bat out of hell, demanding for someone to explain to her why a minor was thrown into holding without anyone notifying the school staff or his parents. Then she noticed there was no time stamp on his arrest form, and all hell broke loose. 

“You’re just going to hold a teenage boy against his will without any intent to formally charge him in the next 72 hours, because you can’t prove when you brought him in.” She seethed, and the tired looking officer just blinked dryly at her. 

“I can put a time stamp on it now, if that makes you happy.” 

“Oh, are you offering to perjure yourself?” She raised an eyebrow at him, and he sighed, “Did you even offer him a lawyer to speak to? Who is your superior? I demand to speak to the police chief.” 

“It’s nearly midnight, the chief has gone home for the night — ”

“So you’re going to hold him in a cell overnight with falsified documentation? This is completely unacceptable. He is a minor and a minority, and is being exploited by a corrupt police force? Are you sure that’s the story you want to tell me?” She threatened, all the while you and Zack sat in chairs off to the side looking awkward and unsure.

“I think she’s gonna kill him.” Zack mumbled to you. 

“I’d say it’s all hot air, but, knowing Lulu…” You nodded. You didn’t know anything about the legal system, and especially not the Spiran legal system, but it seemed like she had him. 

“You’re going to release that boy, or I will rain this scandal down on your precinct like hellfire.” She had a look no one in their right mind would want to challenge, so the officer just gave up. 

“I can post his bail at $100,000 gil. If you can pay it, he can walk out of here tonight.” 

“How generous.” She crossed her arms, looking like she was about to bite his head off. 

“Wait, auntie Lu, we can pay.” Zack said, getting to his feet and stepping in before things got out of control. 

“You can?” She seemed almost surprised, but she was still so angry it was kind of hard to tell. 

“Yeah. Right, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?” He asked, and you nodded. You got half of that from the Bashura alone. 

“Wait, all my money is tied up in my hunter’s account. Are any banks open?” You asked, and Zack’s eyes widened as he realized all his money was also stuck in his account. Somehow you doubted the nice officer would let Gippal go on credit alone after being yelled at by Lulu for over an hour. 

“Then he’s just going to have to spend the night in a cell. It’ll build character.” 

Lulu put a hand on her hip and shot him a glare that could freeze blood, “Excuse me?” 

The officer looked uncomfortable, but didn’t reply so Lulu tossed her hair over her shoulder and pulled out her checkbook.    
“You can pay me back in the morning.” She said to you and Zack as she furiously scribbled out a check and thrust it into the man’s chest before making her way back to the holding cells, not even bothering to wait for the officer to catch up. You followed, and walked out of the nice front office area and back to the cells where various people were pacing around and moaning and groaning about being innocent. You found Gippal’s cell near the back, and far from gaining any character building, he actually looked kinda happy. 

“You guys are not gonna believe this. That guy over there, the Ronso, is in here for publicly urinating on a statue of Yu Yev —” 

“Mouth shut, eyes down. March out of here, get on your ship, leave the city. Don’t come back for a few weeks, and behave when you do.” Lulu said to him as the officer caught up with you and began to unlock the cell. 

“Roger that.” Zack said, grabbing Gippal's arm and pulling him out once the cell door was open. 

“Don't worry. I hate this city anyway.” Gippal mumbled, and she shushed him and swatted the back of his head as the three of you left. 

“You can go now, ma’am.” The officer tried to say to Lulu as he looked past her to watch you leave, but she crossed her arms and shook her head when she saw he was very distinctly watching you walking away in your skin tight black leggings. Even with a giant muscle head on either side of you and with her looking right at him, the officer still chose to look at your ass. 

“Oh, no no. Not yet. We're going to have to discuss the way you conduct yourself around  _ my _ children.” 

∞

“We could just sleep on the ship, I guess.” Zack said as the three of you tried to figure out where to sleep for the night while walking to the main bridge to get back to your gummi ship. 

“Lu was pretty clear we should get him out of the city, but once we’re out we could just pull off somewhere and sleep on the ship. Or we could go camping.” You suggested. 

“Yeah, if we leave quick enough we won’t even have to pay her back.” Zack snickered. 

“Wait, you guys didn’t pay my bail?” Gippal said, sounding almost disappointed.

“Well, we didn’t have that much on us in person, so someone had to write the check that got you out.” You shrugged. 

“Aw, I thought this was some moment of camaraderie where you two put your heads together to help me out.”

“Actually, I’m kinda thinking we make  _ you  _ pay her back with your bet money.” Zack smirked. 

“No way, then I’d lose for sure.” 

“Too bad. If you can’t do the time, don —” Zack began in a mocking tone. 

“Don’t.”  Gippal huffed. 

“Don’t do the crime.” He finished, looking proud of himself. 

You, meanwhile, had been checking your phone to see what everyone was up to and if you had any messages. Axel had gone back to Luca once you told him it wasn’t an emergency, Gippal was just an idiot, and Sora had sent you a bunch of pictures from the Blitz game. Cloud let you know he was in Luca as well, and you began to wonder if maybe you should just go to Luca since that’s where everyone else was. 

As you were about to suggest it to the boys, your phone went off in your hand and flashed Riku’s name on the call ID. 

“Hello?” You answered it while the boys kept talking. 

“Look, why don’t we pool our money together, pay back Lulu, then call the bet a wash. I’ll take you guys someplace really special that I know you’ll love instead. And that’s not a trick, either. I swear.” 

“You’re so full of shit.” Zack shook his head. 

“I’m not! For once, I’m being serious. I know the perfect place.” He said, then he lowered his voice and leaned in to say just to Zack, “It’s really romantic. I’ll even disappear if you want, let you have all the time alone with ≈≈≈≈≈≈ you want. Let me be your wingman.” 

“I don’t need a wingman.” Zack scoffed, though the offer did sound pretty tempting to be honest.  

“Ha, okay.” 

“I don't.” 

“You sure about that?” He raised an eyebrow as you spoke into your phone. 

“Yeah, okay I can be there in less than an hour.” You said to Riku after he asked if you could come back and help him with something in the morning. “Hey, do you guys have a hotel room for the night? You do!” You said, looking back at Zack and Gippal as a way to clue them into your conversation and what you were planning. “Can I squeeze in for the night?” 

_ “I mean, I guess. We don't have space for all of you though.”  _

“Oh, don't worry. Zack and Gippal can sleep on the ship. You don't need them, right?” 

_ “Yeah.”  _

“Okay, then it's settled. Be there soon.” You ended the call and said, “You guys up for a trip to Luca?” 

“Who was that?” Zack asked.

“Don't worry about it.” 

“You know, I don't think I want to go to Luca.” Gippal crossed his arms. 

“Yeah, well, you don't get a vote after all the bullshit you put us through tonight. Zack?” 

He sighed while he thought it over, then finally said, “Hey, I'm going to sleep on the ship. If you wanna fly it while I'm sleeping, there's nothing I can do about it.” 

“Haha, yes!” You exclaimed victoriously as you began to board the ship. 

The boys went into the back, probably banking on you not knowing how to fly the ship by yourself, but you got it up in the air and cruising towards Luca just fine. 

∞

“Are you kidding me? Why do I have to sleep with Sora?” Roxas whined when you finally got to their hotel room. 

“He’s your brother, and you two always share a bed when we get hotel rooms anyway.” Riku rolled his eyes. 

“Yeah, so this is my one opportunity to not get stuck with him.” 

“Hey, who says I can’t share with ≈≈≈≈≈≈ tonight?” Sora interjected. 

“Guys, I’ll take the floor if it’s that big of a deal for you.” You tried, but they weren’t having any of it. 

‘Why should we have to suffer sleeping with one of you?” Riku asked them. 

“Isn’t  being related punishment enough?” Roxas sighed and Sora scoffed.

“You’re  _ so _ melodramatic.” 

“He’s an artist, Sora. He’s gotta lot of angst welled up inside.” You snickered, and Roxas gave you a look. 

“Why don’t we race for it?” Sora offered, thinking that he beat Riku in a race last time they used that to settle something. 

“Yeah.” Riku stood up with a poorly hidden smirk, “Let’s race for it.” 

You sighed and got ready for bed while they all went out into the hall, and when they got back you stuck your head out of the bathroom door with a toothbrush hanging out of your mouth while Sora and Roxas came in with dejected looks on their faces as they sank into the same bed together. Riku walked by next with his hands in his pockets and a smug look on his face, and you rolled your eyes at him as he passed, knowing he didn't even try to make it close and crushed them. 

“What did you need help with, anyway?” You asked as you got into bed with him, seeing Sora was passed out already and Roxas had headphone in blaring music while he played on his phone. 

“Not in front of them.” He said, sounding slightly embarrassed by whatever it was. The idea of him being in an awkward situation made you all the more curious and excited to know whatever it was. 

“Come on, they're not listening.” 

“It's...sensitive. Just go with me tomorrow. You'll see what I mean.” 

“Sensitive?” You bit your cheek as you tried to figure out what it could be, “Doesn't sound like fiend trouble.” 

“It's not.” He said, and you could feel the sheets shift as he shrugged. 

“Is it money trouble? Did you piss someone off?” 

“No, just...just wait and see. I don't want to talk about it.” 

“Gummi ship problems? Need help getting work? Girl trouble?” You kept guessing anyway, and despite the darkness of the room, you swore you saw his expression tense as you hit the right one, “Girl trouble!” 

“Shut up.” 

“Oh my god!” You giggled, nudging him with your shoulder, “What happened?” 

“You'll see. Now shut up and go to sleep.” He rolled over so his back was to you, and you laughed to yourself. 

∞

The next morning, Riku woke you up bright and early while the others were still sleeping and the two of you snuck out. He asked you if you had a dress or something nice you could wear, and you begrudgingly agreed to go find Tifa and Yuffie even though he still wouldn't tell you what was going on. You found the girls and they took you into their ship and helped make you over. To be fair, it was kinda nice to have someone curl your hair and put some makeup on you after roughing it out there for so long. They put you in a pale pastel sundress and some cork wedges, and Tifa gave you a braid that made it look like you had mermaid hair. 

“What's all this for, anyway?” Tifa asked as she tied the straps of the wedges around your ankles. 

“He just said to dress nice. You guys are the ones going overboard.” You said, looking down at the heels and wondering if you would be able to fight in them. That's just kinda where your head was after so many weeks of fiend hunting. 

“Yeah, but for what?” Yuffie asked, taking a seat on her bed and admiring her work.  

“Didn't say.” You shrugged. 

“You didn't ask?” 

“Fine, he  _ wouldn't  _ say. Just that he needs my help with something, and this is part of it.” 

“Well, good for you for going along with it. It's about time someone pulled you out of the wilderness.” She laughed, and Tifa shushed her. 

“You're allowed to live however you want, don't listen to her. We just wish we got to see you more.” 

“And that we got to see you in real clothes more. Though, now that I think about it, maybe not. It's unfair how pretty you are.” Yuffie tried to glare at you, but then just sighed, “But I just love you too much to hate you for it, kid. Besides, it's like being jealous of a puppy for getting all the attention...you feel jealous for a second, but then you just want to play with the puppy yourself.” 

“You're all done.” Tifa finally said after dusting your cheeks with some highlighter. She held up a mirror and you examined yourself. 

“Wow, this looks great. Will you teach me how to do this sometime?” You asked, thinking maybe you wouldn't need to run to them for makeovers if you knew how to do it yourself. 

“Of course.” She smiled, then you sighed as you got to your feet. 

“Let's get this over with.” 

You walked out to the main room of the gummi ship where Cloud and Riku were talking, and they both gaped at you with dropped jaws when you appeared. 

“Oh my god.” Riku mumbled despite himself, and Cloud glared at him and flicked a finger under Riku's jaw to make him close his mouth. 

“What exactly were you doing today again?” He asked him, and Riku stammered some kind of unintelligible reply. 

“Mind your business, Cloudy.” You grumbled at him as you walked over and took Riku by the arm and pulled him towards the ship's ramp. 

“Hey, Riku. Don't do anything to her, don't let anyone else do anything to her, or I'm coming for your head.” 

“Would you chill out?” Yuffie rolled her eyes at him. 

“Yeah, besides….we can always tail them.” Tifa said, walking over and leaning an elbow against Cloud’s shoulder as she watched the two of you leave. 

“Love it. I'm getting my binoculars.” Yuffie said, practically skipping to the back room again. 

∞

“Remind me again what we're doing…” You said to Riku as you took a sip of fresh squeezed orange juice from the table you were sitting at outside a cute little breakfast cafe near the seaside. 

“Just wait.” Riku said, looking over his shoulder and all around, but not seeing what he was looking for. 

“Okay, well, while you're being weird, I'm getting French toast. You want French toast, or an omelette? You strike me as an omelette kind of guy.” You said, trying to catch the eye of the waiter as he walked by. 

“She'll be here...I know she will. And her little cronies too.” Riku mumbled, looking over his shoulder again. 

“Oooo, you got a secret girlfriend?”

“The opposite, actually.” He sighed. 

“You okay?” You asked, trying not to laugh at him, but he was being crazy and paranoid. 

“There's this…” he began, but the waiter came by with your breakfasts so he immediately clammed up and watched patiently until the guy left. 

You leaned your chin on your hand and smiled at him, “Riku, just tell me what's going on.” 

“You have to promise not to laugh.” He even looked like he was blushing a little as he tried to avoid making eye contact with you. 

“I promise.” 

“This...group of girls...have been following us—following me—around everywhere we go. They're freshman from Traverse Town, and they're a little...obsessed with me.” He dared to hazard a glance over at you, and instantly regretted it as he saw your smile had widened significantly and you were holding back laughter with everything you had. 

“Oh yeah?” 

“Shut up.” He glared at you, then had to avert his eyes a second later as the blush came back to his face. “Look, I...I'm really not good at...talking to girls like that.” 

“Like what?” 

“Like telling them I'm not interested, and they should leave me alone.”  

“Must be hard, having to beat the girls back with a stick. You're just too pretty.” You sighed dramatically for him, taking a bite of toast and shaking your head. 

“≈≈≈≈≈, not a goddamn person has walked by here without staring at you. Maybe you have a little sympathy for my situation?” 

“Me? Oh no. I've never had a following of fangirls coming after me, stalking me across landscapes and cities.” 

“Yeah, but surely you've had to dole out your fair share of rejections. How would you do it? I don't want to hurt their feelings, but I also want nothing to do with any of that.” 

“So that's what you brought me out here for? You want me to break up with your girlfriends for you?” You laughed, and he sighed at you and reached for your hand on the table. 

“Or, I thought...maybe if they saw me here with you, they would think I had a girlfriend and back off.”

You laughed even harder, interlacing your fingers with his and squeezing his hand, “You asking me to be your girlfriend?” 

“Can you please say that without laughing so hard you might shoot orange juice out of your nose?” 

“No. I really can't.” You shook your head, and he suddenly jerked your hand slightly.

“Look, that's them.” He said, gesturing with a nod of his head that they were behind you. You dared to look back, and saw a group of at least seven young girls doing a poor job hiding that they were staring at Riku. 

“Aw they're cute.” 

“≈≈≈≈≈≈, please.” 

“Oh fine. I’ll help if I can.” You sighed, pulling his hand and giving the back of it a kiss. “Wait, why did I have to dress up for this? It’s all pretend. Who cares?” You suddenly started glaring at him, knowing your back was to the girls right now so they couldn’t see your expression, “You implying I’m not good enough to be your girlfriend unless I dress up?” 

“No, I just wanted this to look like an obvious date. If you were in your jammies, they might just think we were hanging out. This way, it looks like a date to anyone who sees us.” He pulled your hand over and gave you a kiss right back after noticing that the girls didn’t react and therefore probably didn’t see you do it to him. “Besides, you’re grumpy when you’re not in your sweats, and no one would want to date you when you're grumpy.” 

You blinked at him very slowly and dryly, as if asking if he really wanted to get snippy with you while you were doing this favor for him. You just kept your mouth shut and took a bite of toast.  

“Sorry...that was kind of a dickish thing to say.” He apologized, seeing you were biting back a retort for the sake of making this little mission a success for him. 

“You know, if I saw a guy I liked out on a date with some girl, I don’t think it would make me like him any less...it would just make me hate the girl.”

“Seriously?” 

“Well...yeah, kinda.” You admitted with a small shrug, “That’s just how girls think.” 

“So...maybe I should say something to them?” 

“No way. You’re a dick. You’ll be a dick to them.” You laughed, then noticed the girls had walked by and took a seat outside at the cafe right across the street from you, in clear view of Riku, “Although...they do seem persistent…” 

“They followed us from Besaid to Kilika, then on to Luca and down the highroad when we first got here. The only time we lost them was when we were hunting with you, but then they found me again last night after the game. It’s getting ridiculous.” He tried to put his hand up to shield the side of his face they could see by leaning his elbow on the table and pretending to rest his head in his hand. 

“They just have a crush on you. It’ll fade.”    

“When?” 

“I dunno. They’re harmless, though. Look at them. They’re so bad at stalking you.” You tried not to laugh when you saw one of them hold up a magazine with eye holes cut in it so she could spy more inconspicuously. You took some of the whipped cream from off your french toast and dabbed it on his nose playfully to try and wipe the sour look off his face, saying, “Cheer up, lovebug. Don't make me look like a bad date.” 

“Fine. Lean in.” He said, reaching for your plate and taking a scoop of cream onto his finger before dotting it on your nose in return. 

“Wait, do it again, this time stick your finger in my mouth.” You said, and he shot you a look, “What? Too much?” 

He looked hesitantly at the whipped cream, and his hand twitched like he was really thinking about doing it, but ultimately he sighed and shook his head. “I can’t. Too weird.” 

“Fine. I’ll do it.” You said, thinking that you might as well double down and really sell things at this point. You scooped up some cream on your pointer and brought it up to his lips. 

“I fucking hate you.” He mumbled against your finger before taking hold of your wrist as he took your finger in his mouth. You froze and became extremely rigid as you tried to fight the petrified look that was rising to your face as you felt his tongue swirl around your fingertip and his teeth scrape gently against the top and bottom of your finger as he slowly pulled it out.   

“ _ Ewwwww _ .” You mumbled as quietly as you could, trying to keep a smile plastered to your face. 

“It was your  _ fucking _ idea.” He seethed under his breath as you took your hand back and hid it under the table where you began furiously trying to wipe it off with a napkin. 

“Shh, look.” You said, noticing from the corner of your eye that the girls had stopped their chatter and were staring dumbfoundedly over at the two of you now.   

“It’s working! Give me another finger.” He said excitedly, trying to reach for your other hand but you quickly pulled it off the table. 

“Just kiss me, it’s more to the point anyway.” You said, leaning in across the table as far as you could. 

He sighed and leaned in to meet you, cupping your cheek to make it look more convincing and loving to the girls watching. He pulled away after a second to say, “Ugh, you taste like maple syrup.”  

“I’m sorry, is that a  _ fucking _ problem?” You growled under your breath, thinking that sounded like the best possible thing for someone to taste like to you. 

“I’m just not a fan of overly sweet things like that. You taste like diabetes.” He crinkled his nose and your eye twitched as you reached a hand around to the back of his neck and pulled him in for another big, syrupy kiss, this time shoving your tongue into his mouth so he had to deal with all the repercussions of mocking you after asking for your help. He seemed surprised at first, but began to wrestle you for control of the kiss shortly after, thinking it was too late to turn back now. What was supposed to be a short, flirty kiss to convey the point that you were together turned into a full blown make out session.     

The plan to get the girls off his back was going perfectly until….

“Riku, ≈≈≈≈≈≈?” Naminé asked out of nowhere, causing you both to jump and pull away. She had walked up with Kairi and Xion and stopped just beside your table. 

“Oh, hey guys.” You mumbled, wiping your mouth with the back of your hand since it hadn’t exactly been the neatest of kisses. 

“What the hell is going on here?” Xion asked, looking between the two of you with a super confused expression. 

“We’re doing a thing here. Do you mind? You’re ruining it.” You said, taking a glance at the group of girls. 

“I can see you’re doing a ‘thing’ here. You sure you want us to go? You need anything? Condoms? Candy underwear?” Xion asked, and you stepped on her foot. 

“We’re trying to convince those girls over there that we’re together so they leave Riku alone.” You realized that explanation was lacking, but it was the best summary you could come up with. They looked back at the girls and sighed. 

“Why doesn’t he try talking to them if he wants to be left alone?” Naminé gave him a look, and he shrugged. 

“Because he’s a big dumb idiot.” Xion sighed, then said, “Move over. You two need supervision.” as she pulled a chair up and sat next to you, and Naminé did the same next to Riku. 

“They’re following you around, like those girls from last year?” Kairi asked him, and he avoided eye contact with her as he nodded. She turned on her heel and marched over to their table saying, “Hey, he’s not interested. Stop following him, and get a life. Move on.”   

“Kairi…” Naminé sighed, thinking that wasn’t really what she had in mind. 

The girls looked mortified, and two even got to their feet and ran down the street. One started crying as Kairi walked away, probably out of embarrassment more than anything, but Kairi just kept walking and sat down between you and Naminé. 

“It’s better this way. It might seem cold, but anything other than a firm no would just lead them on.” She shrugged, and you nodded. She kind of had a point. Still, you hated seeing that girl trying to stop herself from crying after being humiliated. “Last year, he tried to be nice and wasn't clear enough that he wasn't interested, and it took two months before they left him alone.” 

“I don't need you to make little girls cry for me.” He said cooly, like he wasn't trying to fight with her but was still angry. 

“So does this place have any vegan options?” Naminé asked you casually, picking up a menu and ignoring the tension across the table from her. 

“Yeah, there’s stuff you can eat on the back.“ You said to her, flipping the menu over for her. 

“I wasn’t trying to be cruel, but you have a tendency to misconstrue your feelings. Besides when have you ever cared about making girls cry?”  

“The french toast any good, ≈≈≈≈≈≈?” Xion asked, flipping up a menu so she could hide from the sparks flying between Kairi and Riku right now. She had been trying to be civil with him these past few weeks, since enough time had passed from the library incident, but things were still pretty awkward. 

“Oh, yeah. Try some. It’s amazing.” You said, pushing your plate over towards her. 

“You know, I think I’m gonna go for a walk.” Riku said, throwing his napkin on the table and pushing his chair out. 

“Careful Riku, after a kiss like that the blood in your legs might not be where you left it.” Xion snickered, and he gave her a sharp look before rolling his eyes and getting to his feet with a mumbled “ohmygod” and began walking away. 

“Hey Xion? What the hell is wrong with you?” You shot her a look too, and she just shrugged. 

“I thought it was funny.” 

“It wasn’t.” Kairi said, getting to her feet and following after him.  

“It was, but still. What’s wrong with you, read the room.” You said to her as Kairi walked away now too. 

“Should someone go after them?” Naminé asked, and you and Xion looked at one another. 

“Well, I just made out with her ex in front of her, and Xion was being a dick about it. I don’t think they want our help right now.” 

“And I’m not going to insert myself in anyone else’s problems, anyway.” Xion said proudly, like she was hyper-aware how meddlesome all of you were and made a distinct effort to not get involved whenever possible.  

“No, you just make boner jokes at the worst possible time.” 

She laughed again at her own joke from earlier, and Naminé cleared her throat uncomfortably and said, “Do you think we should try talking to those girls?” 

“Yeah, maybe we could do some damage control.” You said, getting up and walking over to their table at the cafe across the street, asking them in a gentle tone, “Hey, are you guys okay?” 

“We’re really sorry, we just —” One of them began, sounding almost panic stricken. 

“Whoa, hey, it’s alright. She didn’t mean to yell at you or make you feel bad, but...there’s just no point in following him around, you know?” You were realizing how bad you were at trying to give them advice, but anything was better than calling them out in front of the guy they were in love with. 

“You’re ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, right?” One of them asked, “You’re his girlfriend.” 

“Yeah, I am.” You lied, nodding a little. You wondered how they knew who you were, but if they were watching Riku then they probably saw a lot of you too.   

“You’re so lucky.” 

“You guys are like the perfect couple.” 

“What’s talking to him like?” 

They were all so starry eyed and cute to you, but you could see how he might get annoyed...especially knowing his personality as well as you did. 

“Oh, I mean, he’s great. I really like him.” 

“He just seems so cool and sweet.” One said, and you tried your hardest not to scoff and roll your eyes. Riku? Sweet? Okay….

“I’ve never seen him laugh as much as when he’s with you. You must really love each other.” 

“Ah-ha, I don’t...I don’t know about that, but he makes me really happy. I want that for you guys, too, and you’re not going to find it chasing after him. You should look for someone your own age, who you don’t have to watch from afar. It’s a lot more rewarding to participate than it is to watch.” 

“That’s easy for you to say, you’re gorgeous and funny. I'm just...plain and boring.” One said with a heavy sigh, and you distinctly saw her looking at the nice braid in your hair before pulling at the ends of her own hair.

“Hey, don't talk like that. You think you get a guy like Riku by doubting yourself? You can't think like that. You're all so beautiful and amazing in your own way, you just have to have confidence in yourself and let that shine through so bright no one can look at you without seeing it.”

“And you're nice, too? I can't even hate you for taking the guy of my dreams.” The one of them who had been crying said, deflating and slumping forward in her chair until her head was resting dejectedly on the table. 

“No wonder he looks at you the way he does.” Another one added and you tried not to laugh at the notion. Most of the time he looked at you, it was to glare at you after you said something insulting/stupid. 

“Find someone who looks at you that way. Trust me, it's worth it.” You smiled at them before pulling out your wallet and offering to pay for their breakfasts, or at least for the girls who ran away from the table earlier. 

You returned to your table where Xion was stuffing her face with Riku’s completely untouched omelette and Namin é nibbled at some avocado toast.

“That was really nice of you, ≈≈≈≈≈.” Namin é said as you rejoined the table. 

“Yeah, looks like they’ve converted from Riku fangirls to ≈≈≈≈≈≈ fangirls.” Xion smirked as she saw one of the girls turn her back to her friend so they could try and recreate your hairstyle on them. 

“They’re impressionable alright. You should have heard them, one said Riku was the guy of her dreams.”

“Ha, dream bigger kid.” Xion scoffed, and you looked at her excitedly.

“That’s exactly what I thought!”  

“Guys, don’t be mean.” Namin é scolded you both. 

“We’re just playing around, Nams. Chill.” Xion dismissed her, and you agreed. It wasn’t like you were saying anything you wouldn’t say to his face. 

 

Kairi came back a few minutes later as you finished up your toast, and she sank heavily down in a chair. 

“Everything okay?” You asked as she reached for a glass of water and downed it. 

“Yeah. It’s fine.” She sighed, shaking her head and running a hand through her deep red hair. 

“Where’s Riku?” Naminé asked, noticing that he hadn’t come back with her. 

“On the bridge, by the blitz stadium. Said he wanted to be alone.” 

“Of course he did. Broody idiot.” You rolled your eyes, but decided to stay with the girls and finish breakfast before going to look for him. They invited you to go with them to check out a music sphere store to watch old concerts with them, but you politely declined, saying you should probably get back to your own group. You didn’t go back to your ship, though, and instead went walking along towards the blitz stadium. You thought it was probably best if Kairi didn’t know you were going after Riku, even if she seemed to have chilled out significantly about how much you hung out with him now that everyone was on the trip. There were less eyes on everyone now that people were spread out over the continent and doing their own thing, and the fishbowl effect you felt in school–where everyone knew everyone else’s business and could see everything that was going on–was completely gone now. There was a lot less pressure on everyone, and it was really allowing you all to just chill out and have fun on this adventure.

Except Riku didn’t look like he was having much fun right now. You found him sitting on a bench in the sun, running a hand through his hair in an anxious manner. 

“What’s shakin’ bacon?” You asked as you sat down next to him, handing over a mini bacon wrapped quiche you got from the restaurant before leaving after Xion ate his meal. 

“Oh. Hey.” He mumbled unenthusiastically as you sat down next to him, but at least he took the mini quiche and said a quick “Thanks.”   

You leaned back on the bench and closed your eyes, trying to take in the warm sunshine and nice sea breeze, content to just sit there until he was ready to talk. It took a few minutes, but that was okay. It was a nice day and you were enjoying the downtime.  

“She said she wants to get back together.” He finally said. 

“Oh...well that’s....oh.” You paused for a bit, then asked, “What did you say?”  

“What do you think? I said no. Hell no. Why would I ever want to be with her again?” He sighed like he was still trying to process their conversation and couldn’t come up with anything that made sense. 

“I’m surprised she asked...you’ve been pretty clear about your feelings.” 

“She said the reason I’m so angry still, and why I’m so mean to her even months after it all went down...was because she thinks I’m still in love with her. Or that I love her but just don’t know it yet, and that this is just some kind of...relationship turbulence that sucks now but one day will just be part of what makes our love story so ‘magical.’ Tch.” He scoffed, like the words sounded too dumb to even bother repeating, but you wouldn’t understand without him explaining her thought process. 

“Wow…” The part of you that was good friends with him sympathized with how sad and delusional that was, but the part of you that was friends with Kairi had to at least try and see her point of view, “Well...maybe she’s right. I mean...do you?” 

“Do I what?”

“Still...love her?” You didn’t know why it seemed so awkward to ask him that, since you’d had conversations with him about her a hundred times, but somehow it felt different this time. 

“No. I don’t love her now, and I didn’t love her then. And she doesn’t love me, either. She’s just in love with the concept of loving someone, and just like those girls out from before, she’s decided that I fit the bill for that fantasy. But how am I supposed to see any fucking ‘magic’ in our future when she’s the one who made me stop believing in stupid things like that?” It seemed like a pretty rhetorical question but he turned to you like he was desperate for you to give him an answer. Like he couldn’t come up with an answer himself and thought he’d try asking you to come up with one for him. 

“Hey, don’t ask me. Fairytale love and whirlwind romances are for girls who didn’t grow up in homes like mine.” 

“In the cushy Strife mansion?” He rolled his eyes, and you shook your head. You wanted to say, ‘ _ No. In a townhouse in Midgar where we were too poor to leave even after we were all almost murdered.’  _ But even that little summary was still more than you wanted to say about your past. It was strange to suddenly realize no one knew you as well as they thought. Even the ones closest to you. 

“Haven’t always been a Strife.” You said simply, and he suddenly realized what he had said without thinking about it.  

“Sorry, I didn’t...it’s just...you never talk about Midgar or your family, so I don’t associate you with anything else besides the Strife household.” 

“It’s better that way. Why bring up bad memories?” You shrugged and closed your eyes and leaned your head back so your face was completely in the warm sun, like somehow taking in all the peace and calm from Spira would help calm the pain and rage you still felt at the thought of Midgar sometimes. 

“You know what? I could use a little aggression break.” He said, getting to his feet. 

“I’m not being aggressive. Passive aggressive, maybe, but I wasn’t trying to be —” 

“No, I mean a break in which to be aggressive. Let’s go hunt something.” He clarified, walking over to a list of wanted fiend posters. 

“Oh. Okay, sure. What do you want to hunt?” You asked, getting up now, too, and walking over to the bulletin board.  

“Close your eyes and pick one. Let’s just run away for the day.” 

You shrugged and closed your eyes, then ran your hand down the row of posters until one felt right. “This one.” You said, and he pulled the paper free from the pin holding it. 

“Okay, let’s go.” He said, beginning to walk off down the street that lead into the city. 

“Where to? Should we get Sora and Roxas?” You asked as you followed along behind him.

“You’re thinking about it too much. C’mon, it’ll be a whirlwind adventure for you.” He smirked, and you reluctantly began to nod. 

“Okay, fine. Let’s go have ourselves an adventure.” The two of you began walking off towards the Mi’ihen Highroad, since he was leading and apparently you wouldn’t be needing an airship wherever it was you were going. The last thing anyone heard from the two of you that day was you arguing about needing to go change shoes before setting off, and him not wanting to waste time going back to Cloud’s ship where you left your boots. 

To everyone else, it seemed like the two of you just kinda disappeared after sending vague texts to your teammates about going on a hunt. 

∞

“They have been gone all day. Where the hell are they?” Roxas asked, beginning to feel slightly worried. Neither of you had responded to any messages in hours, and they didn’t know where you went or what you were hunting. 

“Maybe we should try and find Zack and Gippal. Maybe ≈≈≈≈≈ told them more than Riku told us.” Sora shrugged. 

“Yeah, let’s hope. Come on, let’s try and find them before it gets dark.” Roxas said as he picked up his phone and made to send a text to Axel to get Zack’s number. Axel asked what he needed it for, and Roxas explained that you and Riku had gone AWOL. Then Axel replied with a time and a place to meet up and said he’d get Zack and Gippal there too. 

“You look worried. Relax, it’s ≈≈≈≈≈≈ and Riku we’re talking about. They’re probably off having a grand old time somewhere without us. Hey! I have an idea!” 

“Let me guess...you’re going to need a hat, a pipe, and a sidekick named Watson?” Roxas sighed at his brother, but honestly maybe playing detectives wasn’t such a bad idea. 

“Oh, this is about to get fun!” Sora exclaimed, digging around in his backpack for his oversized magnifying glass. “Detective Sora Smith is on the case.” 

“Smith?” Roxas would have put more effort into his confused look, but honestly he was so sick of Sora’s antics that at this point he just accepted he would never fully understand half the things Sora said.  

“It’s my alias. You need an alias in this business.” 

“You’re being a detective, not a spy.” Roxas rolled his eyes as he started packing a bag in case it took a while to find you. 

“I can be both.” Sora shrugged, starting to pack as well, “Ah-ha! They can run, but they can’t hide.” He said once he finally found his magnifying glass, holding it up to his face so it distorted his eye and made it huge.  

“You’re gonna make me regret agreeing to this, aren’t you?” 

“I mean, probably, yeah.” Sora said with a cheeky smile. Secret Agent Detective Sora Smith was on the case and ready to move out.    


	14. Chapter 14

**This is too long for any kind of real intro, so let's just get to it. No chocbucks to hunt for in this one really, but you can still get some for leaving comments or pointing out a mistake if you see one (though you have to make a comment about the story along with your mistake sighting, so you're not just just going "their*, dumbass" and peacing out with your chocobuck). Please tell me what you think, it's been such a long time since I've published anything new, I kinda need that sweet sweet validation...otherwise it feels like I'm just writing hundreds and hundreds of pages for nothing and nobody.**

**Happy reading and godspeed!**

∞

Dusk was starting to settle over the city of Luca when Sora and Roxas reached the meeting point.

"I don't like this. It's quiet." Sora said, taking out a candy cigarette from the pouch of his hoodie as he glanced around the dimly lit street. There were a few street lights, but visibility was generally low. "Too quiet." He sighed, putting the cigarette between his teeth and pausing for a dramatic moment before munching on it. He had been down roads like this too many times to trust them. He knew he was stepping into some real trouble this time, but he was in too deep. ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ and Riku had gone missing, and he couldn't just let that stand. He had laid down his badge years ago... but they were just too important to him. If it meant bringing them back home, he'd happily go running back into the life he left behind to––

"C'mon man, get your head out of your ass." Roxas shoved Sora as soon as he noticed Sora was doing his annoying inner detective monologue again. At least he finally stopped doing it out loud, but he would still stop dead in his tracks and just gaze around dramatically. The restaurant they were supposed to be meeting everyone at was just a few blocks away from their hotel, but they were already late because of Sora's messing around.

Zack, Gippal, Axel, Reno, and Demyx were sitting outside the restaurant at a table on the patio with a jumbo pizza in front of them. There were a few empty chairs left around the table for them and for Cloud's group, and Sora took special notice of that.

"We're not the only ones who are late. I just hope nothing's happened to them." Sora said in a melancholic tone. He nibbled the candy cigarette down to a small nub that barely stuck out between his lips anymore just for added drama.

"Knock it off before I knock you out." Roxas sighed, wondering with an insane amount of jealousy why you had picked Riku to run off with and not him. Or maybe, it wasn't so much that he was jealous. He was just bitter that he had been left behind with Sora, and now had to deal with him while you two were off having fun.

"Oh good, you guys are here." Zack said as Roxas pulled up a seat between Zack and Axel to get away from Sora — who chose the seat between Demyx and one of the empty chairs.

"'Bout time. Where's my baby girl?" Gippal grumbled at them while reaching for another slice of pizza to make an even four stacked up on his plate. Between him and Zack, there really wasn't much left for the rest of the table, but Axel had at least two slices, Demyx had snagged a large piece before Zack could get to it, and Reno seemed content to just eat the garlic breadsticks.

"How should we know?" Roxas shrugged, wondering if he should even try to go for the last remaining slice or just order something else.

"You guys were the last ones to see her, so... where is she?" Gippal pressed, like he thought they were just trying to hide the information from him or something.

"That's what we're here to find out." Sora said, pulling out his magnifying glass and beginning to look over everyone at the table with it for clues.

"We got a text from Riku saying 'going on a hunt with ≈≈≈≈≈≈, don't wait up,' and that was it. We haven't heard anything since this morning and he hasn't replied to us since. We didn't even see them this morning, we just woke up and they were gone," Roxas explained, holding up his phone and showing them the message.

"Wow, he actually typed all that out?" Zack mumbled in surprise, taking out his phone and looking at the text you had sent to your group chat with him and Gippal that just read 'later, nimrods!'

"Why? What did ≈≈≈≈≈≈ say to you guys?" Sora asked, and Zack and Gippal exchanged a look.

"About the same thing." Gippal finally said.

"More or less," Zack nodded, and just then Cloud walked up with Tifa and Yuffie in tow.

"So no one has any clue where they went, just that they left? And no one has seen them all day?" Axel tried to get everything straightened out in his mind.

"Yeah."

"Yup."

Sora and Zack nodded, then Yuffie piped up, "That's not true. We saw them early this morning."

"You did?"

"Where?"

"How long ago?"

A chorus of questions came at her, and she didn't know who to look at to try and answer.

"They came to our ship. ≈≈≈≈≈≈ needed clothes or something," Cloud explained, saying, "The girls sorted her out and she went on her way with Riku. They didn't say where they were going or what they were doing, they just kinda left. Then we left our ship, and when we got back hours later we found ≈≈≈≈≈'s shoes."

"We found my shoes, which she had been wearing, and her boots were gone. We tried to follow them, but couldn't track them down in the city," Tifa corrected, remembering how when they got back from lunch they found her wedges in the corner where you had kicked off your hiking boots during their makeover session and your leggings were gone from the pile of your old clothes, "So that means after we said our goodbyes they snuck back on our ship."

"How'd that happen?" Reno asked, thinking he'd love to be able to sneak into their ship and rig some pranks on Cloud. He liked to philosophise that he was here in life for a good time, not a long time.

"She knows the door code," Cloud said simply.

"Oh," Reno gave a deflated sigh, but everyone ignored him to get back on track.

"So that means they went back to the gummi port in Luca. Is your ship still there?" Zack asked, looking from Roxas to Sora.

"No clue," Sora shook his head.

"Is yours?" Roxas shot back, thinking it was just as likely you might have stolen their ship as it was for Riku to steal his.

"Well, we just came from ours, so unless they took it in the last thirty minutes, ours is still there," Zack shrugged.

"Well, looks like we have our first lead," Axel said.

"That's my line..." Sora mumbled under his breath sourly. He was the one roleplaying as the detective here, not Axel. Axel didn't even have a magnifying glass!

"To the gummi port!" Yuffie declared, and everyone shot her a sheepish look.

"After pizza, though, right?" Demyx was the first one to speak up.

"Oh my god, fine," She scoffed. Getting everyone to work together on this was going to be a nightmare.

∞

A little less than an hour later everyone got down to the gummi port and found Sora and Roxas' ship was still there, and so was yours.

"So that means they must have left on foot," Sora deduced after Roxas had gone into the ship to check if anything was missing or out of place.

"It looks like Riku took his camping bag. They definitely left the city, and were planning on staying out there for a while," Roxas said as he returned just a few moments later.

"Probably why she wanted to change shoes," Yuffie shrugged, thinking she maybe could have figured that out already, but it didn't hurt to check the ships anyway.

"So that leaves two options: one, they hopped on the ferry and went down to either Kilika or Besaid, or two, they went up to the high road and could be literally anywhere north of here," Gippal sighed.

"Have we tried calling them?" Cloud sighed, thinking this was starting to become a headache.

"No, what a good idea!" Zack sassed him sarcastically, and Cloud glared at him.

"Just asking. I'm not the one who lost my teammate."

"She's your sister." Gippal shrugged.

"Yeah, and you know what she's like. You gotta keep an eye on her. Or a leash." Cloud shot back, and Tifa spoke up to stop a fight from breaking out.

"So let's check at the ferry station. The ticket guy will be able to tell us if they booked passage to one of the islands."

"Looks like we've got our second lead!" Sora exclaimed, making sure no one else got to the punch before him this time.

"Yeah, no shit Sherlock." Roxas grumbled.

Everyone else just ignored him and began to walk off towards the blitz stadium, where the ferry was docked in the ship harbor.

When they got there, Zack and Sora were the first ones up to the man in the ticket booth and began bombarding him with questions.

"Have you seen a girl today, around this tall, (hair color) hair, pretty, probably said something snippy as she bought her ticket?" Zack began, holding out a hand up to where your head usually was when you stood next to him to show your height.

"Or the guy she was with: this tall, silver hair, probably also said something equally snippy or mean?" Sora went on, raising a hand up to where he thought looked about right for Riku.

"Uh, no, but we do shift switches every few hours, so they might have been by." The man shrugged nervously as this hoard of stressed and slightly angry looking teenagers walked up.

"Would you have their names on record if they bought tickets?" Cloud asked, shoving Zack aside so he could get to the window of the ticket booth.

"Yeah, sure."

"Do you have a Riku or ≈≈≈≈≈≈ anywhere on there? Probably from early this morning."

The man checked and double checked, wanting to make sure he didn't miss anything since most of the guys in front of him didn't look particularly friendly, but he couldn't find the names anywhere.

"Doesn't look like they've been through here. Sorry. You can give it a look yourself, if you want." He handed Cloud the clipboard, and after a moment Cloud sighed and handed it back to the guy.

"Thanks anyway." He said dismissively before walking off. At least that meant you went down the Mi'ihen Highroad, but then again, it also meant you could be anywhere else in Spira.

"We really appreciate it!" Yuffie chirped at the guy in a friendly manner after Gippal and Axel both scoffed at him like he was useless and Zack seized the clipboard to check it for himself before groaning and tossing it back haphazardly on the counter.

Up on the Mi'ihen Highroad, they spoke to the Chocobo rental lady and asked if she'd seen anyone matching your descriptions pass through today.

She said she had, and that you even rented birds, but it was hours ago when you came by.

"Okay, so they're either here on the highroad, or they passed straight through it and went on to Djose." Gippal said, and everyone deflated a little after having initially gotten so excited that someone had seen the two of you.

"Let's split up. You lot go to the travel agency and check if they're holding up there for the night, and we'll go to the end of the highroad and see if they returned their chocobos at the northern gate and left for Djose." Cloud said, pointing at the younger guys minus Zack and Gippal to go to the travel agency.

"So we're just going to have to split up and search high and low in every location until we find them? That's going to take forever." Reno sighed, running a hand through his hair.

"No one is making you help." Yuffie rolled her eyes at him.

"I am, actually." Axel crossed his arms and shot Reno a look.

"He's just worried we'll leave him behind if we find out they left the highroad." Zack smirked, and Gippal shrugged. They probably would.

"No, he's right. There's gotta be a better way to do this." Tifa said, thinking it would take all night to do things that way.

"Can we just track her by the ankle? She's got that thing on." Axel said, remembering how you tracked down Gippal to Bevelle using it earlier.

"Nah, she'd have to activate the beacon first. Otherwise it's useless." Gippal sighed.

"Maybe, but we can track her by her hunts, right?" Roxas posed his idea to the group, knowing you used the hunting app religiously. He knew it should show all your active hunts, and maybe they could find out where you were going from that.

"We could try, but she has so many active ones logged it might still be like needles in a haystack... only if we get to a hunt location and she's not there, then we have an angry fiend waiting for us." Zack rubbed the back of his neck, wondering how they really didn't have any kind of backup plan for finding you in a situation like this.

"Still, it's a start. Show me." Cloud said, holding his hand out for Zack's phone. Zack hit a few buttons to get it open to the right page, then handed it over.

"There are like 30 active hunts on here..." Cloud mumbled as he scrolled through, then his eyes got slightly wide in shock and confusion, "And her cash total is up to six figures? Why are you guys hunting so much?"

Zack and Gippal exchanged a look, and neither of them wanted to speak up to tell him about the bet.

"Competitive rage mode." Roxas sighed, knowing they were no closer to finding the two of you now than they were an hour ago.

"She could be on her way to any one of these and we'd have no way of knowing." Tifa mumbled, looking over Cloud's shoulder as he scrolled up and down the active hunts list.

"What about her completed list? They're on foot, so maybe if she's on her way to pick up a big nasty, she'll be doing some of these smaller ones on the way. Maybe we can pick up a pattern." Sora said, and everyone shot him a surprised look.

"That's... actually kind of brilliant." Zack said, taking the phone back and trying to see if he could find your completed quest log. "Here's hoping she keeps good records."

"She does. First thing she did after killing the Bashura was log it." Axel said, trying to come over and see what Zack was doing on the phone, but so many people were trying to do the same thing that it was hard to see anything.

"A Bashura? Aren't those on Mt. Gagazet?" Tifa asked, watching Zack try to dig through the setting on the hunter's app to figure out how to access completed quests by time rather than by rank.

"Yup. Frozen fucking Gagazet." Axel grumbled, still feeling the sting of the mild windburn on his cheeks from so much time on that snowmobile.

"You know we're not allowed to go north of the Calm Lands, right? The fiends up there are no joke. It's off limits for all of us." She scolded him, and Axel rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, okay. You try telling ≈≈≈≈≈≈ she can't do something."

"'Sides, she told Lulu and Auron where she'd been. They seemed impressed, not mad... you know, after they fixed her ribs." Zack said absently as he continued searching on the phone.

"What about her ribs?" Cloud asked, but before he could get an answer Zack found something.

"Here we go! Some Ice Flan in the Moonflow three hours ago, Drake in the Thunder Plains two and a half hours ago, Coeurl in the calm lands one hour ago."

"We got her!" Yuffie exclaimed.

"It's getting pretty late, what are the chances they're done for the day and posting up in the Calm Lands travel agency?" Tifa asked, and Gippal scoffed.

"It's ≈≈≈≈≈≈. She's on a warpath north and she's not slowing down."

"And Riku's had something up his ass for a few days now. I doubt they're gonna stay still for long." Roxas said, knowing Riku had been looking to blow off steam for a while now, and you probably offered to help.

"So let's try and find their destination. They've gotta be chasing big money in the north, so see if there are any highbrow contracts in the area. Check the Calm Lands, Gagazet, and give Macalania a look. I doubt they'll be there if they've already moved passed it to the Calm Lands, but it couldn't hurt." Gippal suggested.

"So... who wants to run and get an airship for us?" Cloud finally asked, looking around the circle. Everyone exchanged a glance, and finally Axel spoke up.

"Fine. If you have to force someone to go," he stepped up like he was about to nobly take on the role, then he pushed Reno out in front of him, "it should be Reno."

"Excuse me?" Reno glared at him.

"Oh come on. You're on the track team, you like running." Axel shrugged.

"It's okay, Reno. I'm probably faster anyway." Gippal said, and he started doing some hamstring stretches like he was about to take off running.

"In what world?" Reno scoffed haughtily.

"Race you?" Gippal offered and Yuffie jumped up.

"Count of three...one....two..th––!" Yuffie began, holding her arm up like it was a starting flag, but Reno took off down the path back to Luca before she was even done counting, and Gippal just crossed his arms and shook his head.

"Has it always been that easy to play him? I remember it being harder for some reason." He laughed, making it clear to everyone that he never intended to race at all.

Around twenty minutes later, a gummi ship began to lower onto the highroad just a few feet in front of them. The ramp lowered and everyone climbed aboard to find a very grumpy looking Reno in the pilot's chair.

"I hate all of you. I should have left you." He grumbled as they all made their way onto the the ship.

"You should have, but then you'd never know what ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ and Riku are after." Zack shrugged, sliding over to the navigation unit on the ship to get it all set up.

"Oh yeah? We have a location?" Reno asked, preparing the ship for take off again as Gippal closed the ramp.

"We have an idea where they're headed, yeah. We think they're after this Behemoth on Gagazet's summit." Cloud explained as the ship began to rise.

"A Behemoth? No shit..." Reno let out a small laugh, thinking it was all the more funny because he couldn't quite tell if they were joking or not. "Would she really try and take on a Behemoth alone?"

"Yeah, she just might." Axel said, recalling how in the fight against the Bashura you killed it single-handedly in about two moves.

"And she's not alone. Riku's with her." Sora shrugged.

"They're gonna fucking die." Reno mumbled, kicking up the boosters so the ship would fly a little bit faster.

"We know. That's why we're going to get them." Cloud sighed, shooting small glares at Zack and Gippal for letting you out of their sight to begin with. They just glared right back at him, since, technically, Cloud saw you more recently than they had.

"Everyone calm down. Don't worry, it's too late for anyone to be going up Gagazet. That place is negative a billion in the sunshine, there's no way they'd let anyone go up it in the dark." Gippal said, confident that you were going to be sitting in the Calm Lands' travel agency until morning.

"What about that snowmobile guy?" Axel asked.

"Oh, he's crazy. I mean, an Al Bhed in the snow?" Gippal scoffed and laughed at some kind of cultural joke none of them really understood, so he continued, "But even he's not that nuts. it would be a death sentence to go up there at night. Unless..."

"Unless what?" Roxas asked, feeling like the pit of worry in his stomach was only growing with each word the older kids were saying. They might have known you and Riku were fully capable of taking care of yourselves most of the time, but you were both also incredibly competitive and stubborn to a fault. If it was just the two of you alone together, you might egg each other on until you wound up in a dangerous or life-threatening situation. Especially if you were trying to take on a Behemoth. The only one who looked even half as concerned as Roxas was Cloud, who had his arms crossed and was leaning against the wall so he could stare out the window anxiously.

"Nah, don't worry about it." Gippal shrugged.

"Gippal!" Yuffie smacked him on the back of the head, "Now is not the time for your bullshit."

"Ow, hey!" Gippal rubbed the back of his head and glared at her, "I was gonna say 'unless she found a Ronso colony and got one of them to piggyback her up the mountain, there's no way she's up there.' Kinda goes without saying that most likely didn't happen."

"Then why did you bring it up?"

"Because I know ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. It's not likely that happened, but knowing her, she'd walk up a mountain barefoot out of spite, so anything's possible. If she was in trouble, she'd activate her tracker. She hasn't, so she's fine." He said definitively, then paused before adding a less definitive, "Probably."

"That or she died before she could activate it." Yuffie sighed.

"Hey, do you guys maybe wanna stop fighting? Roxas looks like he's gonna throw up." Demyx finally felt the need to speak up after seeing Roxas sink down to the floor and hug his knees into his chest.

"Aw, Roxas, are you okay? Do you need some water?" Tifa asked as she walked over and knelt beside him.

"No, I'm okay. Just... walking up a mountain out of spite after being turned away from the snowmobile guy is exactly what both of them would do..."

"Don't worry, Rox. They'll be in the Calm Lands. I can feel it." Zack said confidently, then he mumbled to Cloud, "Maybe we wanna get Ven and Lulu on standby... you know... just in case we need someone to thaw our little popsicles out."

"Let's check the travel agency first. They're smarter than that. No need to get staff involved until we're sure they're in trouble." Gippal said.

"Well, we'll know soon enough. T-20 minutes to the Calm Lands." Reno said after checking the screens on the ship.

∞

"Have you seen a silver haired boy and a (hair color) haired girl? They should have just been through here about an hour ago," Zack asked the woman behind the front desk of the travel agency when they finally got there.

"Sorry, I don't think they've been by here." She shook her head.

"I might have seen them. The boy with silver hair... greenish eyes, pretty tall, right?" the hover driver asked. She had been sitting in a chair in the lobby, done working for the day.

"Yeah, that sounds like Riku," Roxas said, looking hopeful.

"And, yeah, I think there was a girl with him... but... I didn't really notice her appearance, to be honest," she admitted sheepishly, with a faint blush on her cheeks. It was pretty obvious she got one look at Riku and suddenly didn't really have any attention left for anyone else who might have been around.

"When did you see them? Did they ask for a ride?" Zack was starting to get excited.

"About an hour ago, like you said. And we told them they should stay here for the night, since the fiends around here can get pretty dangerous at night... but they insisted." She sighed.

"Drao syta ic dyga dras du dra kunka padfaah rana yht Gagazet... drao fana geht uv nita ypuid ed, du pa ruhacd, (They made us take them to the gorge between here and Gagazet... they were kind of rude about it, to be honest,)" the Al Bhed man sitting with her said to Gippal, recognizing him as Al Bhed immediately. He was probably the hover technician, so Gippal knew there was a good chance if the hover driver saw you both then so did he.

"He says they went to Gagazet. Says they were rude about it, too," Gippal translated.

"Rude? Then it was Riku!" Sora chimed excitedly.

"They really did go to Mt. Gagazet then..." Tifa sighed.

"Don't worry, no one would ever let them go up the mountain at night," the woman behind the counter said, trying to reassure them after seeing all of their expressions fall.

"I tried telling them that, but they were adamant. Said they weren't even going to the mountain. Maybe they just got mixed up, and thought that was the way back to Bevelle or something?" the hover driver suggested with a small shrug.

"You guys should stay here. I'm sure they'll come wandering in any minute now. There's not really anywhere else to go in these parts at night, so they're bound to show up."

The agency innkeeper booked them a few rooms, and they dispersed for the night. Cloud, Zack, and Gippal convinced the hover driver to take them to Mt. Gagazet so they could make sure you hadn't tried climbing it in the dark anyway, but they returned an hour later empty handed. They went all the way up to the snow gear rental place, but he said no one had been by in hours. Eventually, they were forced to turn around and go back to the Calm Lands.

∞

The woman at the front desk promised to let them know if you and Riku came by during the night, and after that everyone split up into the different rooms to sleep.

Zack and Gippal were in a room with Cloud and Tifa, sitting on the beds looking anxious. It had been at least an hour since they checked in, but there was no sign of you or Riku.

"Maybe they're just camping somewhere out under the stars?" Gippal tried to reassure everyone.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈ does like camping." Zack nodded in agreement. Riku brought along his camping bag, after all, and it's not like you didn't know how to make a fire and mega cube for yourself.

"Why would she camp if she has all that money?" Cloud wondered cluelessly.

"She's probably trying to save her money."

"Why?"

"Well... we have this bet going to see who can earn the most from hunting..." Zack finally admitted that there was a little competition going on between the three of you that might be motivating your hunting spree.

"You idiots." Cloud sighed.

"What's the winner get?" Tifa asked.

"To pick where we go for the next week."

"Who's winning so far?" Tifa tried to hide her slightly amused smile. It would have been funny if she knew Cloud wasn't so anxious right now.

"Well, Gippal was, but he had to post his own bail yesterday so that knocked him into third place. As of now, it's ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ by $25,000 gil." Zack said, checking your grand total against his.

"Only $25,000? Oh, you can crack that out in an afternoon." Gippal scoffed, and Cloud cleared his throat.

"Or you could stop antagonizing her. Be gentlemen, let her win."

"No way. I respect her too much to go easy on her," Gippal shot back, and Tifa rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, okay. And when she beats your asses fair and square, then what?"

"Then we tell her we let her win," he smirked.

"You guys are assholes." Tifa shook her head.

"Hey, I didn't say anything." Zack shrugged, "Besides, she's stiff competition. She doesn't need us to let her win."

"Yeah, don't insult her. She can do it on her own." Gippal scolded Cloud, who just shook his head.

"'She can do it on her own,' you say, sitting in a room in the Calm Lands, trying desperately to find out where she is so you can help her." Cloud gave everyone a dry look.

"Just because I trust her doesn't mean I don't also worry about her." Tifa said simply.

"Don't sweat it Cloud. As soon as this bet's over, we'll be good boys. Promise," Gippal assured him.

"Better be... I don't want anything like this to happen again. I worry about her, you know? I've never had a younger sister before, but I'm pretty sure letting her turn herself into Spira's top bounty hunter by firing herself at a Behemoth for fun at midnight isn't on the list of things good older siblings allow to happen."

"In all fairness though, if she bags that Behemoth she'll have won hands down," Gippal said, helping no one's nerves.

"There's nothing we can do about it now... we should try and get some sleep." Tifa sighed, bending forward to take her shoes off so she could get into bed.

"Any chance Tifa wants to share a bed with me?" Gippal asked hopefully as he began to pull off his shoes as well.

"Uhhh, no?" She shot him a look, and then he got a grouchy expression as he realized he was definitely getting stuck with Zack as a bed buddy.

"Oh come on. The biggest should get to share with the smallest. It's parity."

"I get to share with my boyfriend. It's not my fault you're both freakishly huge."

"So, wait, you guys don't share a bed when you stay at travel agencies?" Cloud asked, giving Zack a very specific look.

"No, I always get the bed to myself." Gippal shrugged, not realizing what he was saying. Or maybe he did realize, and was just doing it for fun.

"Remind me again, Zack, do you still have a thing for my sister?"

"I... uh..." Zack flushed, shooting Tifa a look that was a desperate cry for help.

"Cloud, he probably sleeps on the floor." Tifa sighed, seeing Cloud's expression suddenly darken.

"Answer the question, Fair. Do you still have a crush on her?"

Zack swallowed hard to build up his nerve and met Cloud's eye before saying, "No, it's not a crush. I care about her. A lot, actually. So what?"

Cloud crossed his arms and clenched his jaw tightly, before asking through clenched teeth and a thin veil of calm, "Gippal, he sleeps on the floor, right?"

"Ha-ha, nope. They've slept together. They do almost every time we get a hotel room."

Cloud shot Zack a murderous look, and Zack punched Gippal in the arm.

"N-not like that... Gippal, please, rephrase that––" Zack tried, but the murder eyes turned far darker and more serious. "Cloudy..." Zack got to his feet slowly as Cloud began rolling up his sleeves, "He was kidding! It's Gippal! He was just being a little shit! Be reasonable, he didn't mean––Gah!"

Without warning Cloud started swinging and Zack barely had any time to duck and pull back as Cloud's fist came into contact with his jaw. Zack's lip split against his teeth with the first hit, but he managed to dodge the second hit that was coming for his eye as he jumped onto the bed. He stepped over Tifa as he tried to run around Cloud to get to the front door, but Cloud grabbed him by the back of the shirt and threw him to the ground.

"Cloud!" Tifa was up on her feet trying to pull them apart, but Cloud had wrestled Zack down to the ground and looked like he wanted to kill Zack. Gippal rushed over and grabbed Cloud under the arms and yanked him off Zack, and then once he had Cloud locked in his grip he gave a small laugh.

"Alright, I see now that I probably could have phrased that a little teeny-tiny-baby-bit better." Gippal explained with an amused laugh, keeping a good strong grip on Cloud as Tifa knelt down beside Zack and tried to assess the damage while he scooted back to lean against the door. "They sleep in the same bed sometimes, but he never even gets under the covers. He's never touched her, swear to god. I mean, I'm a heavy sleeper, but I'm not that heavy of a sleeper, you know?"

"Goddamn it, Gippal." Tifa sighed heavily as she ducked into the bathroom then returned to Zack's side and tried to wipe at the blood dripping from Zack's lip with some wadded up toilet paper. It looked like that initial punch was the only one to land, and, though it was bleeding, it really didn't do much damage to anything except for the split lip. Even then there wasn't enough blood to make her want to ruin one of the towels.

"Me? Cloud's the one who's punch happy. Besides, what's the big deal? Haven't you two been sleeping together for years now? And not in the innocent way. Why's it okay for you guys, but not them?" Gippal struggled to keep Cloud under control.

"That is none of your business." Tifa snapped at him, accidentally pressing harder than she intended on Zack's lip, making him wince and pull away only to hit his head on the door behind him.

"Because Tifa isn't my sweet little sister and I'm not taking advantage of her!"

"Sweet little sister? Cloud, she's off kicking a Behemoth in the nards for shits and giggles. I think she can handle Zack." Gippal laughed wryly, but Zack was staring Cloud down with a hurt expression.

"Hey, I'm not taking advantage of anyone!" Zack sat up, knocking Tifa's hand away and holding some healing fingers up to his lip to stop the bleeding. He was too lazy and bad at white magic to bother with killing the swelling or removing the mark, but as long as it wasn't bleeding he was fine with a little sting and some pain. "I haven't touched her, and I won't. Not because you'll hit me, and not because I care if you do, but because it's her decision."

"Why can't you find another girl? Why does it have to be my sister?"

"I didn't ask to fall in love with her. It just happened."

"What, so you love her now?" Cloud broke free from Gippal's grasp and walked closer to him. His hands were clenched in fists but he was calm enough at the moment that Zack didn't try and get away.

"I don't know! Would that be so terrible? I love you, I love your family, why can't I love her, too?"

"Zack...." Tifa's brows knit together and she looked between him and Cloud with a very worried expression, like she was on his side but also didn't want Cloud to be upset. Gippal didn't know how to mock this situation for once, and was also just watching worriedly in case fists started flying again.

"She's sick, Zack. Why are you trying to make things harder on her? On yourself? Don't you want something a little less complicated... something where a happy ending might be a little more attainable?"

"No. I don't." Zack said defiantly, squaring right up to Cloud and looking him dead in the eye even though he was still sitting on the floor.

"If you're asking for my blessing, you're not getting it. I don't think it's a good thing for either of you. She's on a hard road, but she has to be. You don't. You don't need to put yourself through so much misery just because you think you're in love with her."

"You think I'm just gonna walk away because it might be hard?"

"Drop the stoic hero act. It doesn't suit you." Cloud rolled his eyes. There was something almost sweet about Cloud's thought process, like he didn't want anyone in his life to have to suffer anymore than absolutely necessary, especially not his best friend, but he wasn't going about it the right way.

"Why are you trying to make this your decision? It's not. It's hers." Zack stood his ground, ready to take whatever Cloud had to throw at him if it meant defending you.

"Lucky for you." Cloud pushed Zack aside so he could get out of the room, and the door slammed shut behind him.

"Whew, those Strife's and their tempers, amiright?" Gippal laughed to try to ease the tension in the room, but they ignored him.

"Don't worry, Zack. If you're serious about this, he'll come around." Tifa said gently, trying to get Zack to show her his lip again so she could make sure he was alright. "He just worries about her, you know? There's not much he can do to make her life any easier, and I know that frustrates him to no end. He probably just doesn't want you to have to deal with the same frustrations and sadness he does if you don't have to."

"Well, I have to." He crossed his arms stubbornly and looked away from her, a slight blush dusting his cheeks.

"You'll wear him down eventually." She gave him an encouraging pat on the shoulder.

"Yeah, badgering Cloud relentlessly until he gives in is kind of your specialty." Gippal agreed.

"I'm gonna go talk to him. Get some sleep, you two." She said before getting up and following Cloud out into the hall.

"So..." Gippal began once it was just the two of them left in the room, "You love the Strife's, you love ≈≈≈≈≈≈... anyone else?" He offered Zack a hand up and gave him a knowing wiggle of his eyebrows.

"No." Zack scoffed, and Gippal dropped him on his butt midway through helping him up.

"Tell me you love me." Gippal crossed his arms, and Zack sighed.

"You're a real pain, you know that?" Zack mumbled as he got to his feet by himself.

"Zack, you tell me you love me, or I'm telling ≈≈≈≈≈ y––"

"Alright, alright. I love your stupid ass. Okay? Now shut up."

"Aw, you big sap." Gippal snickered as he strode over to the bed, and Zack gave him a good hard punch in the arm to shut him up and make him wipe that pleased look off his face.

∞

The next morning, it was clear that you and Riku hadn't been by the travel agency. The woman at the front desk hadn't seen anyone all night since they came in, and the hover driver stopped by after breakfast and said she also hadn't seen either of you.

"Oh yeah... they are definitely dead on the mountain." Reno sighed as the group checked out and began making for Mt. Gagazet via the hover after double checking with the innkeeper that no one else came in during the night.

"Aw, dude, c'mon."

"Shut up." Demyx and Axel shushed him, and Roxas just sighed as he put his phone away after trying to call both of you again. Your phones were as dead as they were last night, and everything went straight to voicemail. That meant you really didn't stay at a travel agency last night... and it also meant you possibly did spend the night on the mountain, and if that was the case then anything could have happened to you guys last night. It felt like the stress was going to give him a stomach ulcer.

"Try to relax. We don't know that anything is wrong yet," Sora said as he bumped shoulders with Roxas playfully. At least Sora was still in good spirits, though he was probably one of the last ones to still be optimistic at this point. Even Yuffie looked nervous since finding out you hadn't come by the agency last night.

"Yeah, as far as we know, they're just camping out here in the Calm Lands. No one on Gagazet saw them, and she still hasn't activated her beacon." Gippal reminded everyone, but no one really felt reassured.

The hover dropped them off at the gorge between the Calm Lands and Gagazet a few minutes later and everyone felt a little tense as they crossed the bridge that lead to the foothills of the mountain.

"Hey, what's down there?" Demyx asked as they crossed, looking down the steep decline that seemed to lead off into nowhere.

"Nothing, as far as I know." Gippal shrugged.

"I don't remember reading about there being anything between the Calm Lands and the mountain." Tifa said, stopping and walking over to the ropes holding the bridge so she could look out over the strange path more carefully.

"Didn't notice that was there last night... well, it must lead somewhere, right? Look, we can get down there," Zack said, starting to backtrack towards the Calm Lands side of the bridge where the road curved a little to reveal the hidden path.

"Come on, you're wasting time." Gippal tried to stop him, but Zack was already almost below the bridge at this point, with Sora and Yuffie at his heels.

"If they're not in the Calm Lands and they didn't go up Gagazet, then maybe there's something we're missing," Zack argued, and the group still on the bridge didn't quite know what to do. Most of them turned to Cloud and Gippal to make some kind of a decision, but before they could come up with anything one way or the other, Zack cried out an "Oh my god!" and began running down the path full speed. Even if it wasn't you and Riku, it had everyone curious enough to follow.

Zack sprinted down the path until it came to a large opening overlooking vast landscapes identical to the Calm Lands above, like something had struck a blow so powerful to the land that it sundered the ground and created a cliff. Now he understood why they called it the gorge, but that wasn't what surprised him. He saw you and Riku in front of an opening to a cave that was expelling pyreflies like they were smoke, both of you on the ground and fighting over who got to use the last ace bandage. It was clear to see why both of you might need it, too. The two of you were covered in blood, band aids, and bandages from several deep looking cuts all over your bodies. Across the way from the cave was a little campsite where the two of you had obviously spent the night, but there was no sign of a fight or struggle or anything else that might explain the state of the two of you.

"No, I took the last bandaid. You should have the last bandage," You were saying, trying to get Riku to sit still long enough that you could wrap up his right forearm to stop the gushing blood that was running down his hand and into the dirt below.

"What the hell happened to you two?" Zack asked as he ran over. He took off so fast he left Sora and Yuffie in his dust, and they hadn't caught up yet.

"Zack?" Surprised (eye color) eyes gaped at him, still looking glittery and clear to him despite the massive cut below your left eye that followed your cheekbone to your nose. Everything below the cut on that side of your face was just red, completely drowned out by all the blood pouring from the cut above. It was even rolling down your chin and had stained your dress, which was also looking a little worse for wear at the moment. The shoulder strap on one side was completely torn and revealed another long cut along your collarbone, and your arms were covered in bandaids and bandages that blood had soaked through. Riku looked just as bad and even bloodier.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Riku asked blankly.

"Better question; what the fuck happened to you two?" He was so surprised by how casually the two of you were just sitting there doing shitty patch ups that it almost made him mad, "Don't you know white magic? Why do you two look like that?" He half-yelled at Riku as he stormed over.

"Guys! We found them! They're here!" Sora yelled as he finally rounded the bend in the path.

"You brought Sora, too?" Riku sighed in dread as you tried to wipe at your cheek with the back of your hand... but that was bloody too, so it really didn't do anything but smear it around.

"Oh my god, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈!" Yuffie came around the corner next, and she charged over to you, "What happened? Who did this to you?"

"Wait, you're here? What's going on? Who else is here?" You looked around as Axel and Roxas appeared next, followed shortly by Cloud, "What is this?"

"A search party! Where the hell have you been?" Roxas chastised you as he hurried over and dropped to a knee by your side. He pulled off the drawstring bag on his back and pulled out a first aid kit from inside it. He began wetting some gauze with some hydrogen peroxide and tried to press it to your cheek, but you held out a hand to stop him.

"Don't bother. We're just gonna get more." You said, looking back into the cave.

"This isn't over yet." Riku grumbled, taking a bandage from Roxas' kit and using it on his arm while Roxas tended to you.

"We thought you were hunting a Behemoth on Mt Gagazet, what are you doing here?" Axel asked as he watched you grab a bandaid and slap it over your split shin before grabbing another bandage and wrapping it around your thigh. Those nice black leggings of yours were more ribbons than anything else, and there were several slick patches of blood soaking through them. It was easy to see why everyone was giving you horrified looks, but all of the cuts you had were just surface nicks that bled like crazy. They looked bad, but didn't actually hurt that badly. Honestly, you had suffered worse cuts from shaving. They stung a lot, but definitely looked way more brutal than they were.

"The Behemoth?" you mumbled, then suddenly remembered adding that to your hunt list a while back, "No! Do you think I'm stupid? I know better than to hunt a Behemoth without backup. I don't have a death wish." You rolled your eyes as you tore the bottom of your dress to use it as another bandage after exhausting Roxas' supply and binding your upper arm with it to get the bleeding on a badly weeping cut over your bicep to stop.

"Oh yeah? Then why does it look like you guys spent the night in a garbage disposal?" Zack asked, watching helplessly as you both did your best to sloppily patch your cuts so they would stop bleeding, but made no efforts to actually treat or try to heal them, "What are you even doing here, what are you hunting?" he asked as you got to your feet and began to walk back to the entrance of the cave. Riku was right behind you as soon as he got his arm under control again.

"You ready?" you asked him, staring into the dark tunnel with a determined look on your face.

"Waiting on you," he replied coolly.

"Guys? What are you hunting?" Zack asked again, trying to get you to stop and explain.

You looked back at him with a cold and slightly scary look and just said, "Tonberry," before marching down into the cave again.

"What?" Roxas mumbled, completely dumbfounded that this was what culminated from all his sick feelings and stress. This. "W H A T?"

∞

"You guys know you had us really worried, right?" Zack whispered to you as he tried to follow along behind you into the cave. Despite how cut up you and Riku were, it didn't seem to be slowing you down in the slightest. The cave was crawling with fiends the likes of which no one else had even seen before, but you and Riku were trashing them with just a few hits as your carved your way deeper in, like you had done this a hundred times. The whole group had begrudgingly followed along behind you, so it was like one big massive hunting party... or it would be, if they weren't too busy hounding you and Riku with questions to help.

"We split up all the time. Why were you guys so worried?" you asked and he didn't really have an answer.

"I don't know. You just took off so suddenly, and wouldn't answer any of our calls or anything. Then we tried to find you by looking through your hunting list, and we thought you tried to climb Gagazet at night."

"I knew I might need to call someone in case of an emergency, so I was trying to save my battery. And I was saving that Behemoth hunt for when I win the bet... now you've ruined the surprise." You sighed, then added, "When I win, we're going to fly to the top. Fuck that mountain."

"Who says you're going to win?" Gippal challenged, finally catching up with you. He had been one of the last people to walk down into the gorge since he was so convinced you had gone to Gagazet.

"This Tonberry, for one... if we ever actually kill the fucker."

"Whoa, ≈≈≈≈≈≈, language." Reno smirked at you, doing his best to keep a calm and cocky look on his face despite being visibly freaked out by all the terrifying shadows cast by pyrefly lights and fiends around every corner of this dreary and imposing cave.

"How can you be hunting a Tonberry, anyway? I thought they were myths." Sora asked, and you gave a scoffing laugh.

"It's real alright. It's a demon straight from Satan's asscrack."

"We've been hacking away at it all morning, and it's still kicking." Riku grumbled.

"From where I'm standing, it looks like it's been hacking away at you all morning," Tifa said, trying to get you to stop so she could help bandage you up a little better.

"It has been! It's a goddamn monster." You pulled your arm away from her. They just didn't get it. You were going to get more cut up before the day was done, so there was no point in taking care of them. You tried that at first, but it was just exhausting.

For the past two hours nearly, you and Riku would run into the cavern and find your mark, then a fight would ensue with the Tonberry. You would cast spell after spell while Riku slashed away at it, but it wouldn't die. No matter how many times you hit it, it just kept coming at you with that painfully slow walk, and then it would strike with a blade move so incredibly fast it was impossible to avoid completely. By now you were good enough at trying to dodge his knife that it would just graze you, and you could walk away with minor cuts that just bled like crazy but weren't actually deep. It wasn't fast enough to chase after you, so as soon as you exchanged a good number of blows with the Tonberry, you would turn tail and run to the cave entrance to regroup and do patch jobs.

You explained all this to the group as you lead the way through all the twists and turns of the caverns, though no one seemed to believe either of you. It's like they thought you had cave madness or the pyreflies were making you delusional or something. But if they thought you were joking, they were about to be sorely mistaken.

You led them down a fork in the path that came to a dead end, where pyreflies gave off an eerie green glow that made even the calmest of them feel a little uncomfortable.

"So, where is this Tonberry?" Axel asked in a low whisper, walking up to you once he saw you had stopped after coming to the dead end.

"Shh." You hushed him, listening closely to something no one else heard.

"Uhh, I think you guys desperately need to sleep-" Yuffie said to Riku, and he shushed her more aggressively than you had Axel.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈--!" Reno tried to talk to you next, but you stuffed your hand over his mouth and stared at the ground as you tried to concentrate.

"He's here," you whispered, and sure enough, once everyone quieted down, a distinct shuffling sound could be heard. Like something was approaching at a snail's pace from behind you.

Demyx was one of the last in the group, so when everyone turned around to see what was coming he was stuck out in front. He gulped hard as the shuffling footsteps got louder and closer, and he grabbed onto Roxas' arm as he stared in horrified anticipation. A light coming from a creaky, swinging lantern cast a shadow at least thirty feet high on the curved cave wall, and everyone took a tense step backwards towards the dead end with their backs to the cave wall as it stalked ever closer.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit--!" Demyx had a death grip on Roxas, but he was so freaked out himself that he didn't even seem to care. Everyone was rooted to the spot except for you and Riku, who moved around in the group until you were in front of Roxas and Demyx. Roxas put a hand on your shoulder to stop you from walking towards the ominous looking fiend, but then suddenly the Tonberry rounded the corner.

"AAAAHHhhhh... uhhh... huh?" Demyx screamed a little as it finally came into view, but his scream died in his throat and became more of a confused whimper as he got a better look at this 'demon fiend' that had you and Riku so worked up.

It was a strange--and frankly kind of cute--green turtle looking creature that was maybe, maybe, three feet tall. It had a lantern in one hand that was outstretched to illuminate its path, and that seemed to be it.

"Oh, it's totally cute!" Yuffie exclaimed, then it pulled out a small, sharp looking chef's knife with its other hand. "Oh... okay, less cute now..."

"Is... is this a prank?" Roxas tightened his grip on your shoulder angrily for a brief second thinking you were playing games, then completely without warning, the fiend lunged at Riku and Demyx. Riku leaped out of the way and materialized his weapon as he sidestepped around the Tonberry and slashed it on its back, while Demyx hollered in fright and stayed rooted to the spot. You threw up a protective barrier around him as soon as you saw the Tonberry move, and the knife pierced through the shield with its razor-sharp tip to leave the tiniest of cuts on Demyx's chin. It wasn't more than a quarter inch in length, but almost as soon as the knife made contact a fountain of blood came rushing out of it. The knife always broke the barrier no matter how strong you made it. It was like there was something about the Tonberry's strike that just couldn't be blocked or reflected. Like as soon as the slow creature decided it was time to move, there wasn't a force in the universe that could stop its knife from reaching its target. You could slow it down, and all but mitigate the damage, but the knife still always hit, and it always drew blood.

Riku got a few good hits in, but the Tonberry just slowly turned around to face him, then jabbed forward with its knife-like always. Riku dodged but didn't get away in time to avoid getting a new cut on his leg in the process. Roxas tried to help him out by making a small wall of ice to put an obstacle in between Riku and the Tonberry, and you reflexively used some ice magic of your own to shoot razor-sharp shards of ice out of the wall and into the Tonberry.

"What are you all standing around for? Let's go." Axel punched Reno in the arm to get him to stop staring and start helping before shooting a blast of fire at the fiend, so you and Riku weren't the only ones doing anything.

∞

The fight was ridiculous. All twelve of you surrounded the Tonberry with rapid-fire attacks, but no matter how much you hit him or how hard it just didn't seem like it was getting any closer to dying. It didn't have any elemental weaknesses, you couldn't inflict any status ailments, and there was no way to lower its attack or defense.

"This is what you get for letting a fiend oversoul!" Gippal yelled at you after maybe thirty minutes of the whole group repeatedly trying to take the Tonberry down. By now, everyone had their fair share of cuts and scrapes, and tempers were a little short from sheer frustration.

"I didn't let it oversoul! It just did it!" You snapped, grabbing his arm to pull him out of the way of a knife strike he was too busy sassing you to notice.

"You better share the reward money with me after all this." He glared at you, holding you in front of his chest before holding one of his guns over your shoulder and taking aim. He took his sweet time lining up the shot and didn't let you wiggle away until he unloaded a full clip into the Tonberry. It just recoiled a little with each shot, then came back with a counterattack. You yelled when you realized Gippal wasn't going to let you go even as the knife got closer. "Barrier ≈≈≈≈≈≈! Goddamnit, barrier!!" Gippal shook you, and you tried your best to get one up, but it was a little difficult with him holding your arms at your sides.

Cloud and Zack got in between you and the Tonberry, and Zack tried to block the attack. He struck the Tonberry's blade with his own sword, trying to knock it off course, while Cloud attacked the Tonberry directly to draw its attention away. Zack's sword snapped in two as the chef's knife sliced right through the thick steel, but he did enough to dampen the blow that by the time it collided with and broke through your shitty barrier, it just barely pricked your leg above the knee before the Tonberry retracted it to focus his next attack on Cloud.

"Gippal! What the fuck!?" Cloud began, furious with Gippal, but it didn't even come close to how angry you were.

"Did you just use me as a goddamn meat shield?" You elbowed him hard in the ribs to make him let go of you, then you stomped on his foot to make him hunch over so you could see eye to eye with him.

"I thought you'd put up a barrier!" he said defensively.

"Oh, I'm gonna kill you. You're not getting a single gil out of this!"

"Hey guys, you wanna wait until after we're done to kill each other?" Yuffie said, falling to her butt after throwing a series of ninja stars. The Tonberry had turned its attention to the other half of the circle, where Tifa, Yuffie, Reno, and Sora were. You glared at Gippal, but ultimately turned back to the fight to see what you could do to help. Zack was holding both pieces of his sword, looking clueless and unsure of what to do next, but he was determined to keep himself in between you and the Tonberry.

"You see, Gippal? That's how you treat a lady. Asshole," you said as you took the sword from Zack and held the broken pieces together before casting a fire spell that superheated the metal. The silver steel turned bright orange over the crack and the sword began to meld back into one piece. It didn't look good, and it was surely going to break again, but it was the best you could do for now.

"You don't even appreciate it! Look, you stepped right back into the line of fire." Gippal fussed at you, seeing that you completely sidestepped around Zack's protective stance.

"Just because I don't need constant protection doesn't mean I need you using me as your personal––"

"Guys! Focus!" Tifa yelled at you, and you saw that the Tonberry had turned its attention back to you again.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, Tetra Elemental!" Roxas called out to you, and you shot Demyx and Axel a look to confirm that they were on board with the plan. The four of you were standing opposite each other in a big square and had the Tonberry completely surrounded on all sides, so it would be easy to overwhelm it. It had no specific elemental weakness, but that didn't mean that a full elemental assault wouldn't be at least a little bit effective.

"Now!" Axel gave the signal, and the four of you let loose a barrage of magic attacks simultaneously. Axel lit a flare under its feet that enveloped it in a ferocious blaze, while Roxas shot it full of ice ice shards. Demyx created a bubble of water around the Tonberry, trapping it within, and you used this to bolster the power of your lightning spells. You could feel what the others were doing, but to everyone else who was watching it just looked like the Tonberry became engulfed in a blindingly bright white light as all the elements mixed together.

Gippal fired a shot into the center of the light just as you lashed out with an almost whip-like strike of lighting and then suddenly, to everyone's surprise, pyreflies began to rise from the chaos.

"Oh my god, it's finally dead!" Sora cheered as the light died down and revealed the Tonberry had fallen onto its backside and was disappearing.

"Thank god, I thought that was gonna take all day." Demyx let out a relieved breath before Reno caught him in an excited headlock.

"We did it! We actually did it!" Reno exclaimed, and Gippal popped the chamber of his gun before slinging it over his shoulder victoriously.

"I think you mean I did it," he smirked, and you laughed haughtily.

"What do you mean you did it?" You glared at him.

"There's no way of knowing who landed the final blow, so let's just forget about it and be happy we're finally done," Tifa said as Cloud walked over to her and began to heal up some of the cuts on her forearms.

"Even if he did get the deathblow, you're the one who knocked it around enough to get it's health that low." Axel shrugged, trying to be helpful, but you just hung your head.

"No... there's no way..."

"My kill, my reward." Gippal said in a low, mocking voice, using your own words against you.

"No way. You're disqualified." Zack shoved Gippal, causing him to stagger back a few steps, "You think we're just gonna forgive you for using ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ as your personal shield? No fucking way!"

"Oh come on, she was never in any real danger." He scoffed and rolled his eyes at Zack, who continued to glare at him.

"Yeah, no thanks to you, hero." Cloud mocked him, coming over to help start treating you next.

"Wow, I've never seen Zack look so mad before. Especially not at Gippal," Roxas mumbled to Axel as they both sat down in exhaustion. They weren't particularly injured themselves, so they just decided to sit it out and wait for everyone else to be ready to leave.

"The puppy becomes a wolf when ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈'s involved. Everyone knows that." Axel gave a light sigh and watched as you all continued to gang up against Gippal, "You know, when he's not busy ditching her for bets or whatever it is the 'dream team' gets up to for fun."

"You sound almost resentful of them," Roxas commented, and Axel rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well, I don't know if I'd go as far as to say I resent them... but you still gotta wonder why they chose to operate the way they do, always going off on their own and getting into fights like this."

"Yeah... well, hey, maybe we could be her teammates next year." Roxas suggested and Axel smirked.

"Now there's an idea."

"Hey, you guys doing alright over here?" Demyx asked, walking over to give either of them medical attention if they needed any.

"Yup. We're good." Axel nodded, "Just a few nicks and dings, but you can get them on the ship."

"Yeah. Go help Riku... looks like he needs it." Roxas added, seeing Riku was doing a poor job of trying to heal himself now that the fight was over. He had sunk to the ground as well, and was staring intently at the large gash on his forearm like he thought he could just will it to heal if he stared at it hard enough.

"Actually, maybe we should treat everyone back on the ship. This place is giving me the creeps." Demyx sighed, looking over his shoulder as some fiends hollered and roared deeper in the cave.

"Hey, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, we should get out of here." Roxas called out to you as he got to his feet and began to make his way over to you to try and break up the fight going on.

"Let's have a duel then. Winner gets the reward money." Gippal said, cracking his knuckles in a menacing way as you glared at him.

"If you hit me, you better hope you kill me. Or I will unleash a hellstorm of––"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." Roxas stepped in between the two of you and gave you a scolding glare. He was pretty close to you in height, maybe just an inch or two taller, so there was no way you could avoid his piercing gaze. You eventually had to sigh and give in to make him put those eyes away. It was hard enough to look at him already with all his cuts and scrapes without feeling massively guilty.

"Yeah, alright... you guys brought a ship, right?" you asked, pulling your arm away from Zack and Cloud as they tried to work together on fixing you up while the three of you continued to argue with Gippal about how much of a profit cut he should get for helping kill the Tonberry.

"It's in the Calm Lands, but yeah," he said, trying to lead you down the way you came, knowing if you left, everyone would follow.

"Hey, wait a second. Guys, look over here!" Reno called out, and everyone stopped to look where he was pointing at the far cave wall, "There's a bullet hole. Gippal missed! His 'killshot' is lodged in the wall!" He laughed, and Axel came over first.

"Bullshit. I never miss." Gippal scoffed.

"Oh my god, he's right!" Axel confirmed, running his fingers over the cave wall where a distinct Al Bhed bullet was sticking out of the wall directly across from where Gippal had been standing during the final moments of the fight.

"You didn't miss, you just shot at it after it was already dead. ≈≈≈≈≈≈ got the killshot." Reno snickered.

"Ha! Jackass! There's your cut." You gave Gippal a sideways kick to the ass as you walked around him to inspect the wall yourself.

"Yeah, okay, ha-ha. Now you can die happy. But wait, it doesn't even matter. The bet was supposed to be over saturday night. It's sunday morning, so this hunt doesn't count."

You clenched your fists and thought about clocking him right in his big dumb face, but then just let it all go and started laughing, "You're relentless." You shook your head, dropping your fists and holding a hand up to your forehead as you continued to laugh and shake your head at him.

"We know. It's why we... tolerate him," Tifa said, hooking an arm around your neck and beginning to walk towards the cave entrance with you again. Everyone began to follow, except for Gippal and Zack who hung back a beat to check out the bullet in the wall.

"Wow. You actually missed," Zack teased him, and Gippal shoved him.

"I didn't miss, she just got there first."

"She's faster than you." Zack smirked proudly.

"I'm not as fast as a lightning strike. Go figure." Gippal rolled his eyes, though by the way he was crossing his arms it was clear it bothered him.

Suddenly the cold, stern hands of death himself clutched at their shoulders from behind, giving them a painful squeeze.

"So... are we gonna talk about the way you two assclowns handle my sister, or what?" Cloud seethed at them, digging his fingers into them and giving them glares so malevolent they could feel his eyes boring into them without even turning around to look at him. It was like a demonic aura suddenly took over the room in a way that was far more sinister than any fiend they might run into... which was saying something, because this cave was definitely the most haunted, fiend-filled place they had ever been.

"What's the matter, Cloudy––oh, that looks sharp." Gippal gulped, realizing Cloud was in no mood for any of his glibness as he picked up one of Yuffie's fallen ninja stars from the ground. They already knew this wasn't going to be a fun talk, and now he was armed...

∞

Everyone got back outside except for those three, and you waited around out in the gorge while Reno ran off to get the ship to pick you up. In the meantime, Demyx and Riku went around trying to heal everyone up.

About fifteen minutes later Cloud emerged from the cave looking surprisingly refreshed as he rejoined the group, then he began to assist in healing up knife wounds on anyone who still needed help. Zack and Gippal trudged out of the cave slowly, looking like they had a tongue lashing of a lifetime that left them more drained than you and Riku after a full morning of getting stabbed and chopped at by an apparent demigod of a fiend.

"Everything okay?" You asked, doing a poor job hiding your amused smile as Zack dropped to his butt beside you and took your legs into his lap so he could start trying to heal up the cuts on your shins no one had gotten to yet.

"You're not allowed out of my eyesight for the next three months, you hear me?" Gippal scolded you as he sat beside you on the other side.

"Oh yeah? Or what?" You sassed him, and he shook his head.

"Oh, no. No backtalk. I'm not your friend anymore, I'm your father. That there is your new mother. Get used to it," he said, pointing at Zack, who was so scarred by whatever Cloud had said/done to them in the cave that he didn't even dispute being called your 'mother.'

"Basch'll be thrilled to hear that." You rolled your eyes.

"He will. It takes a village to take care of you, and I realize now we've been too lenient with you, young lady. Well, no more. You're on the short leash from here on out."

"Okay, pops... so why won't mommy dearest speak to me?" you asked, noticing how Zack was distinctly refusing to talk or make eye contact with you.

Gippal didn't answer you though, and instead just gave you a stern look and said, "≈≈≈≈≈≈, take your sass and put it in your pocket."

"What?"

"Take your sass... and put it in your pocket. It's of no use to you here with me, so save it for someone who cares."

"Oh my god. Cloud? What did you do to them?" You ignored Gippal and went straight to glaring at Cloud.

"Nothing they didn't deserve." He shrugged casually, then changed the subject by saying, "Hey look, our ride's here."

Reno landed the gummi ship nearby, and as soon as you got on board you ran over to an outlet so you could log the hunt before anyone else tried to take credit for the kill. Once that was out of the way and everyone else got on board, Reno took the ship up and set out for Luca so everyone could return to their own ships. During the flight, the healers took turns going around the room and helping out whoever still needed medical treatment. You and Riku were especially cut up since you had been at it the longest, but Riku insisted on healing everyone else before taking care of himself beyond stopping the bleeding of his cuts. Once they were finally done sealing up all of your injuries, you asked if it was alright to shower on Reno, Axel, and Demyx's ship since you were covered in dirt and blood and just wanted to clean up now. They said it was fine, and Demyx got you a long shirt to wear after, since your dress and leggings were trashed, and Yuffie had some spare shorts on her that she said she would lend you if you promised not to run off in them and destroy them like you did her sundress.

You stepped out of the shower after a quick rinse where you used a shower gel that left you smelling almost exactly like Axel, until you put on Demyx's shirt and then you smelled like a weird mix of the two. That only got weirder when you were done and Tifa let you use some of her floral lotion. You sat down on one of the beds in the back room next to Yuffie and began to go over your legs to check for any remaining cuts that had been hiding under all the dried blood and dirt. It looked like everything had been accounted for, so you just went on with applying the lotion while Yuffie sat up to help brush out your wet hair for you.

"Man, girls are a different species from us, aren't they?" Reno mumbled from his seat on the ground behind the pilot's chair after Zack kicked him out of it so he could fly the ship himself. He had been watching with great interest as you walked out of the bathroom and wrapped a towel around your hair in a mesmerizing kind of way in his opinion, then you plonked down in bed and began rubbing goo into your legs until your shins were shiny in an oddly satisfying way. Not only that, but as soon as you entered the room you were warmly received by Tifa and Yuffie, and both of them sat up to help you and check in on you in any way they could. Meanwhile, Axel had punched Reno twice for talking, Zack kicked him out of his chair, and Gippal stole the helm of the ship from him with a snide comment about his driving ability. Even Riku was kinda rude about stepping over him to get to the shower next after you came out.

"Hey, eyes out here, pervert." Axel kicked his brother lazily from his own seat on the floor, seeing that Reno had been eyeballing you and the other girls since the minute you stepped out of the bathroom.

"See? That's what I'm talking about. I'm not doing anything, and you're mean to me. ≈≈≈≈≈≈'s not doing anything, and they're nice to her." Reno sighed, pulling his feet in so he was sitting cross legged and out of Axel's reach.

"That's because ≈≈≈≈≈≈ isn't annoying as shit." Demyx flicked the crumpled up ball of paper he and Sora had been playing with at him.

"You're one to talk." Reno scoffed.

"Don't fight, children. You're all annoying," Cloud mumbled from his seat next to Zack. He wasn't even helping to fly the ship, he just stole the seat like he owned the place.

"Says the prince of being a dick," Axel mumbled under his breath.

"What was that, pretty boy?" Cloud raised an eyebrow, and Axel shot him a look.

"Pretty boy? You kidding me, Cloudy? You're prettier than I am. You're the prettiest guy in here by a mile." Axel rolled his eyes.

"Except for Riku, anyway." Roxas piped up from beside Axel with a snicker.

"Yeah, except for Riku. But that's not even a competition. Kid's in a league of his own." Axel rubbed the back of his head.

"We call that the big leagues, and you're not invited." Zack smirked, and Reno threw the crumpled paper at him next.

"Who says you're up there with him?" Reno sassed him after the paper ball bounced off his head.

"Uh, every girl who's ever seen him?" Demyx said, and Zack shot him an appreciative smile.

"You know, you're the only guy on this ship I actually like, Demdem," Zack said.

"We've never done anything to you," Sora said, gesturing at himself and Roxas, and Zack laughed.

"Yeah, but you bother ≈≈≈≈≈≈ sometimes, so you bother me a little bit too."

"You bother her more." Roxas grumbled bitterly, and Axel gave him a small nudge with his shoulder and laughed to acknowledge that he had heard him and thought it was funny.

"What are you two snickering about?" Reno shot them a suspicious look, and they both just shrugged then looked up as you walked out of the back room and started looking for a place to sit.

"Nothing, don't worry about it," Axel said as he scooted a foot or two away from Roxas to make room for you before waving you over.

"You know I don't like secrets." Reno glared at them as you stepped over him to get over to the space they made for you.

"Ooo, who's telling secrets?" You asked as you sank down to the floor between Axel and Roxas, using Roxas' shoulder to steady yourself as you did.

"Those two slimy schemers," Sora said, throwing his replacement paper ball at Roxas, who caught it and pegged it back at him.

"Slimy schemers?" Roxas raised an eyebrow at him in irritation, and Axel just laughed.

Just then Riku came out of the bathroom dressed only in his torn up pants with a towel on his head trying to dry his dripping hair, "Can I borrow a shirt from someone?" He asked, lazily looking around the room.

"Yuffie has extra clothes," You said glibly.

"Fuck off, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." His reply was so automatic it was hard to say if he was even listening to the specific words of it. He threw his towel at you, and after catching it so it wouldn't peg you square in the face, you just collected your hair over one shoulder and began to dry it off some more as if he was doing you a favor by chucking it at you. He gave you an irritated look, which you smirked at in response.

"Yeah, I gotcha buddy," Demyx said, ignoring the whole exchange and getting to his feet. He walked into the back room before returning with a band t-shirt very similar to the one he had given you and tossed it to Riku.

"So, what were you guys talking about?" You asked Axel, trying to find something else to talk about so you weren't just watching Riku turn the shirt over to check out the band name before rolling his eyes and pulling it on anyway.

"How pretty Riku is," Axel said, getting a smug smirk as Riku popped his head out of the shirt and glared at him.

"One of my favorite subjects." You joined him in smirking at Riku. It was less that you liked talking about it, and more that you liked how grumpy it made him. Whether he was smiling or glaring at you, he was just plain pretty, and there was nothing he could do to stop you and everyone else from thinking it.

"Don't." He gave you a warning look as he sat down on the other side of Roxas.

"Look, he's blushing." Reno laughed, scooting over and poking a finger into Riku's cheek, causing him to cross his arms as he fought the urge to punch Reno out for touching him.

"Oh, no, that's not a blush... that's rage," Sora mumbled, scooting away slightly even though he really wasn't even that close to Riku. You leaned forward to look past Roxas and then laughed as you caught sight of his disgruntled expression.

"Watch your fingers, Reno. If his ears aren't red, it's not a blush," you warned, knowing that when Riku was blushing his whole face lit up red and spread to his ears, but if it was just his face going red it meant you were in trouble.

Riku swiped Reno's hand away wordlessly while looking a little grumpy, but he was handling his temper pretty well all things considered. Reno lost his balance as he tried to pull back quickly when he saw Riku's hand move, and he staggered back a bit until he caught himself by throwing a hand down on the ground. Only he didn't hit the ground. His hand landed on Roxas' upper thigh.

"Easy there, handsies." Axel snickered, and Reno groaned in disgust as he retracted his hand.

"Trust me, if I was really feeling handsie I wouldn't have been aiming for Roxas."

"You'd be aiming for Riku, because he's so pr--" Roxas began, but Riku swiftly punched him in the arm. You started cackling, and Riku reached over to give the base of your thigh right over the top of your knee a painful squeeze, causing you to jolt at the bizarrely tickling sensation. That just made you laugh harder, and he rolled his eyes as he pulled his hand away. He groaned at the slimy lotion feel on his hand and quickly made to wipe it off on Reno's arm.

"You big baby." You shook your head at his reaction.

"That smells really nice, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." Reno said as he tried to rub in the lotion RIku just wiped on him to make it go away.

"Oh yeah? Come up here, I smell like the lovechild of Axel and Demyx who is being raised by Tifa," you mumbled, giving Demyx's shirt another quick sniff. You really liked the smell honestly, it was like really fresh laundry detergent mixed with his kind of breezy, oceany smelling cologne. You liked getting to wear his snow gear when you visited Gagazet, and you would have really liked to be wearing one of his t-shirts now, if only you hadn't also used what you instantly recognized as Axel's shower gel when you rinsed off.

"You got a problem with smelling like my lovechild, Strife?" Axel shot you a look and you laughed.

"Look, I already got a new set of parents today, don't make it three," you said, looking at Gippal giving you the 'my eyes, your eyes' two-finger hand gesture that meant 'I'm watching you.' "What's the plan now anyways?"

"Get back to Luca, kick you assholes off our ship." Axel shrugged.

"Get my seat back from your overgrown mommy, there." Reno said, gesturing with his head at Zack as he went to snap the elastic of your sock in retaliation, like he was mad at Zack but knew it would be easier to take it out on you than it was to confront Zack directly. He ever so casually grazed your shin after letting go of your sock, and he marveled quietly at how smooth your leg was, mumbling a small "Whoa."

Axel saw this and scoffed, but you leaned forward excitedly and beamed at Reno, saying, "Right? I don't know whose it was, that yellow razor in there is choice." You grinned, feeling how soft and smooth your leg was.

"Aw, ≈≈≈≈≈≈, come on. You don't use a man's razor without asking him." Axel sighed, giving you a tired look.

"I was kidding." You smirked at him, having seen the 'A' for Axel written on it in the shower, and he rolled his eyes. "But still, I shaved, like, two days ago with one of Zack's razors and let me tell you, ladies' razor engineering needs to catch up. I'm still smooth as a seal. Feel."

"I'm not gonna feel your leg, ≈≈≈≈≈. Cloud is right there." Axel deadpanned at you.

"Screw it, I will." Reno said, reaching for your shin.

Cloud turned around in his seat and shot him a dark look, and Reno froze. You just made direct eye contact with Cloud as you glared at him while grabbing Reno's hand and running it up your shin.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈," Cloud scolded you, and you doubled down and brought his hand above your knee to your thigh. Reno's face went beet red and it looked like blood might spout from his nose at any second.

"You gonna keep traumatizing every guy I ever speak to, or you gonna let me live my life?" You matched his look of grumpy displeasure and he just sighed.

"Fine. Do whatever you want, I'm too tired for this shit. But not with Reno. I mean... come on. Not Reno." He scowled at Reno, who gave an offended scoff.

"You know what, Cloud? I––"

"Dude, he's letting you live. Shut the fuck up," Axel mumbled, kicking him a little.

"What's going on back there?" Gippal asked, trying to look over his shoulder but also too distracted by trying to keep his eyes on the road.

"Hey, ≈≈≈≈≈≈, your phone's ringing," Zack said, holding up your phone from where you had it charging on the control panel in front of him, and you got to your feet to go find out who was calling you.

"You talkin' to me again?" you asked offhandedly as you walked between his seat and Cloud's to get to your phone.

"You know you can't keep me away for long." He shrugged, and Gippal scoffed.

"Yeah, that and Cloud just said he's too tired to be on high alert anymore," Gippal said, and Zack shot him a lazy glare before hooking an arm around your waist and pulling you over to him to sit down sideways over his lap after you grabbed your phone.

"Don't listen to him," he mumbled, snuggling his chin onto your shoulder from behind, then he made a face and said, "Oh, wow, you do smell like an Axel-Demyx hybrid... weird..."

"Shh, it's Lulu." You hushed him before answering the phone, "Hello?"

Zack heard Lulu reply to you in some capacity, but he was too busy burying his face in your neck to try and find part of you that still smelled like you to actually hear any of the words she was saying. He smiled when he heard you trying to stifle a laugh and pull away from him as he realized how ticklish you were, but he tried not to bother you too much while you were on the phone since it might be important. Instead he just hugged his arms around your waist and sighed dreamily while trying to completely block out the icy glare of death he felt coming from Cloud's side of the room.

"Yeah, okay. Be there soon," you said, hanging up and turning to look at Zack. He had that mushy look on his face that made it hard to look directly in his eyes, but you tried to ignore it so you could ask, "Any chance you guys can drop me off in Bevelle? Lu needs me for something."

"Yeah, whatever you need." He nodded right away.

"We just passed Bevelle, like ten minutes ago." Gippal groaned.

"Well, too bad. I'm turning the ship around." Zack shrugged, reaching around you to get to the steering wheel.

"Oh, what? No! Get your own ship and go on your own time." Reno sighed.

"Come on, you know I'm not allowed in Bevelle," Gippal grumbled, sinking into his chair.

"She's on the main ship, and just needs me for a second. You don't even have to get out," you explained, and he nodded.

"Yeah, fine... whatever. I'll just go to the cafeteria and get some snacks."

"Oooo, get everyone snacks. Pay us back for all this trouble you're causing," Axel said, and you tried to stop Zack from turning the ship around.

"We can just go back to Luca with them. Don't drag everyone along," you said, knowing you already caused everyone here a good bit of trouble already.

"Ignore him. Do what you gotta do... not like we have plans." Demyx tried to make you feel better.

"We could make some. Get off our ship already." Reno gave Demyx a quick swat to the back of the head before glaring at Zack. Zack just glared right back at him and gave the wheel a good strong turn to make it turn all the way around.

∞

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, good. I have something I'd like to discuss with you," Lulu said once you had finally gotten to her lab. Everyone seemed pretty fine with this pitstop to Bevelle since it meant they could have a trip to the cafeteria inside the main ship. Everyone was feeling a little hungry after all the trouble with the Tonberry, anyway, and no one had any other plans.

"What is it?" you asked casually as you hopped up onto the examination table to sit while you chatted.

"This week we were supposed to take the students on an expedition to Bikanel Island, but--"

"But it's a horrible place and you decided to skip it? Smart plan." You scoffed to yourself lightly, remembering those five days you spent digging in the heat like they were the worst few days of your life.

"But a Sandworm is terrorizing the area near the beach we were supposed to land on. Sandworms are some of the largest fiends in Spira, and not just anyone could properly and safely dispatch one. That's where you and your group come in."

"There's a beach?" you asked impudently, blocking out everything she said after the word beach. It was an island so maybe, technically speaking, it was all beach. You laughed bitterly at the thought that the whole time you were there, there might have been an ocean just a little ways away you could have been swimming in.

"Yes, there's a beach. And there's a sunken Machina city off the coast that we were planning on exploring... but we can't do any of that with that fiend on the loose."

"Sunken city, huh? How are you going to explore it? Scuba diving?"

"Transformative magic. Why? Are you interested in going?" She raised an eyebrow at you.

"Well, yeah, maybe. Sounds cool." You crossed your arms and shrugged, thinking that it would probably be awesome to explore an underwater city. You didn't exactly know what transformative magic meant, but you were down to find out. "But... it's a chaperoned affair, right?" You deflated a little, knowing Zack and GIppal would never want to go do something that had been organized by the school when they could be off doing their own thing.

"Take out that Sandworm and I'll let you have all of Monday to explore the city a day ahead of the group."

"No supervision or restrictions?" You gave her a suspicious look.

"Would that even stop you?"

"Probably not," you shrugged.

"I need someone to scout the area and make sure there are no underwater fiends that would give us any trouble, anyway."

"Alright. You've got a deal."

"Good. As you know, Zack's birthday is also this Monday, so--"

"Wait, what?" You gaped at her.

"He... didn't tell you?" She stared back blankly at you.

"No! Oh my god!" Your brain began a panic spiral after this new info hit you like a freight train, "I need to get him something... a present or... what should I get? A sweater? No... maybe some new running shoes, or a... dumbbell?" You looked at her to see if she liked any of those ideas.

"Think hard. What does Zack like?"

"... Squats?"

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." She shot you a look.

"Uh... Cactuars?"

"Why don't you ask him to go on a date with you?" She gave you a knowing smile, and you flushed, "Surprise him with a kiss. You'll make his year."

"Are you trying to pimp me out to your nephew?" You tried to hide your face by looking down at your hands, but your cheeks were so pink there was no way she didn't notice.

She laughed, "No one is suggesting you sleep with him." Then she gave you a second look and smirked, "... Although..."

"Lulu!" If you weren't blushing before, you certainly were now. You gaped at her, feeling the heat of a thousand suns burning in your face as she just laughed at you.

"Oh, grow up, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. It was only a joke."

"A joke that makes me wanna sew my ears shut." You rolled your eyes before glaring at her smirking face.

"Come now, put that glare away. Sex is nothing to be ashamed, nervous, or embarrassed about. As long as you're being safe, and--"

"Maybe we shouldn't be teaching our students that kind of thing," Aqua said as she entered the room with some forms for Lulu to sign.

"Bah, abstinence is unrealistic and pretending sex is some shameful act certainly isn't helping anything. She's young, but you know how teenagers are. They're going to do whatever they want regardless of what we say, so the best we can do is prepare them, not shame them for it," Lulu said offhandedly, as she took the forms and scribbled her signature over the various pages.

"Why are we having this conversation? Did something happen?" Aqua gave you a very specific kind of look that made your ears burn as your blush began to spread over your full face.

"Guys, could we please not? Nothing has happened. Nothing is going to happen. Ever. So please just... drop it, okay?" You sighed.

"Don't worry, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. You don't have to do anything until you're ready. But you can talk to us about it if you ever want to. You can talk to us about anything."

"Yeah, okay. I know." You nodded, feeling somewhat mortified despite their generally helpful tones, "So... where should I take him?"

"For a date? I told you; take care of the Sandworm, and I'll take care of the rest. Bring your own food, if you want dinner or a party. I doubt there are any restaurants under the sea."

"I can't believe he didn't tell me," you mumbled as you hopped off the table.

"He probably wanted to surprise you with it. I bet he has something planned that will blow up in his sweet, stupid little face." She shook her head, then added, "He means well, but trust me. My plan will be better. You just get him to the desert."

"You got it."

"Wear a lacy bra," she teased you before handing you the flyer for the Sandworm's contract, and you scoffed.

"Stop, would you?" You rolled your eyes at her as you took the contract and looked it over. It was ugly, but with a name like 'Sandworm,' you weren't exactly expecting any different. You pocketed the contract, then rubbed the back of your neck as you fought the urge to leave before asking, "Any chance you can get Ven the day off? He and Zack are friends, too, and I'm sure he'd want to come."

"Oh, he'd love that," Aqua said, giving Lulu a pleading look.

"We can see. If nothing comes up, maybe we can get him a few hours off."

"Where is he?" you couldn't help but ask, "Any chance he's here?"

"Sorry, I think he's in the Thunder Plains doing burn treatments on lightning strike victims." Aqua grabbed a form off of Lulu's desk and checked over something before handing it to you. As best you could tell, it was a sign out sheet Ven used to tell Lulu where he was going. You found yourself smiling a little as you saw the messy handwriting you knew belonged to Ven. He left notes like 'Luca. Blitz idiots. Back in an hour' and the most recent, 'T-Plains. Wild guess. Back in two hours.'. It was time stamped just thirty minutes ago, so he wasn't going to be back for a while.

"Should I tell him you stopped by?" Aqua asked as you gave the sheet back to her.

"Nah, that's okay, don't bother him. Just tell him about the party, okay?" You smiled at her, so she would stop giving you that sad look as you backed out of the room. "I'll see you later!" you called, walking off down the hall to get back to your ship.

∞

When you finally made it back to the gummi ship all your friends were on, everyone was arguing about where to go next. Cloud's group wanted to stay in Bevelle, Zack and Gippal wanted to leave because you couldn't trust Gippal in Bevelle, Axel's group wanted to go back to Luca, and Riku, Roxas, and Sora couldn't agree on a place to go. They decided while you were gone that no one really needed to get back to their own ship desperately, since there really wasn't any reason to split up on different ships if you could just agree on a place to go. You told them about the Sandworm that needed killing, and everyone groaned in disapproval that you wanted to go jumping right back into fiend hunting. You won the bet, so you could make Zack and Gippal go with you no questions asked, but since it was supposed to be the set up for a birthday party for Zack, you also wanted the others to come as well.

You and Riku were dead tired from fighting the Tonberry all night, and everyone else seemed pretty exhausted too, to be honest, so the group decided to head back to Luca so everyone could unwind and relax for the rest of the day. That way, if they decided they wanted to join you tomorrow in the hunt, they could, and if not, you would be by your ship and could go alone.

Once you got to Luca, everyone wanted to get some rest then meet later to find something to do... but once you got a hotel room and your head hit the pillow, that plan went out the window. You didn't wake up until dinner time, and then it was so difficult trying to track everyone down and getting them to meet in one place. So, you didn't even bother and opted for a small dinner with your boys. After dinner, Zack went for a run, and you went shopping with Gippal. You got some new clothes and some things for Zack, though you didn't let on that you knew tomorrow was his birthday in case Gippal tried to ruin the surprise that you figured it out.

After that, you went to bed early to make sure you were rested before fighting the worm.

∞

The next morning, you woke up and put on a swimsuit under your retired digging gear, then set out for your ship. You weren't sure if any of the other groups wanted to join you for this, but then again, you didn't really need their help with the contract. You just wanted them to be there for the underwater exploration part of the day.

Gippal was still in his typical bad morning mood when you boarded, so it was up to you and Zack to fly the ship while he went to the back to sleep a few more minutes during the trip to Bikanel.

"Excited for today?" you asked Zack as you punched the coordinates into the autopilot system before taking your usual seat to the left of the middle. You were watching for any sign that he might be excited that today was his birthday, but if he was, he was hiding it well.

"For your worm? Not particularly." He shrugged as he began to prep the ship for take off.

"It's not my worm. It's for Lulu. We'll do something fun after, I promise."

"Oh yeah? What kind of fun?" He perked up a little, but still wasn't letting on if he had anything planned for later.

"You'll see." You shrugged, and he looked over at you for as long as he felt he could afford to while in the middle of take off.

"You have something planned out for after, then? Like a date, maybe?"

"Well, if you want to call it that, fine, but Gippal will be there... so..."

"Ah, we can always ditch him. Where are we going?"

"You'll just have to wait to find out."

"Don't be evil. You know it's just gonna drive me crazy not knowing. Come on, gimme a hint."

"Nope."  
"Fine. That's fine. Just know, we're going someplace awesome tonight, and I'm not gonna tell you anything about it."

You grinned, "So... you have something planned for today, too? Something special?"

He made a face like he realized he said too much, "No!"

"Ah-ha." You smirked.

"Whatever. You don't ruin your surprise; I won't ruin mine." He didn't sound happy about it, but he was showing some real willpower in not pressing you further. It was definitely eating him up inside though. "Can you take the helm?"

"Need to pace?" you asked with an amused smirk still plastered to your face as you got up to replace him behind the wheel after he got up to walk around behind the chairs.

"No," he replied in a snide tone.

"Okay... it's just I hear you walking back there."

"Shut up," he mumbled, dropping to the ground and cracking out some push-ups to take his mind off things.

By the time you got close to the stretch of beach you were supposed to be looking for the worm over, it became incredibly apparent why this fiend was a problem.

"Oh my god. It's fucking huge!" you exclaimed, standing up from your chair to get a better look out the window. Zack got up from the floor where he was doing some kind of ab exercise or another and joined you in gawking at the massive fiend. It looked like it was about as long as a basketball court and ridiculously thick and girthy.

"Eugh, like a giant, wiggly booger, isn't it?" he commented, taking the helm while you walked back to wake up Gippal. You found him in his bunk staring up at the ceiling with a vacant look on his face, like he was still in his morning mood.

"Get your head out of your ass; we're here," you said as you grabbed your shoes and began to make a small travel bag with a towel, your phone, and a change of clothes. You advised the boys to wear their swim trunks, since you were going to be landing near the water and might want to swim after the fight, and they both agreed and changed while you landed the ship a ways off from the coast and the worm, then it was go time.

"Any tips for this fiend?" you asked Gippal as you began your slow approach from behind. Sandworms were native to Bikanel, so you figured he must have some experience with them since this was his childhood home. At least more experience than you had.

"Yeah, don't get eaten."

"I'm serious." You eyed him.

"So am I." He shrugged, "It'll try it, just you wait."

"I can't tell if you're joking..."

"I'm not. It'll see you as a little cartoon ham, and slurp you right up."

"Don't worry. We won't let it eat you," Zack said, also looking at Gippal like he couldn't tell if that was a joke either.

"Yeah, don't worry. You can survive in its stomach for up to, like, six hours or something crazy. Like, we can get you out of there... but we might not want you anymore after dragging you out of the belly of a worm. That's a smell that doesn't wash out easy."

"Oh my god..." you mumbled disheartenedly, and Zack clapped you on the shoulder.

"It's not gonna eat you."

"Yeah, 'cause we're gonna toast it before it has the chance," Gippal smirked, and you nodded.

"Let's do this thing."

(don't care, don't care, don't care... it's a worm fight. There's been enough fighting so far, and I just wanna move on. Like, you can probably imagine what happens. Big worm. Big fight. It dies. Cool. Moving on!)

∞

The pyreflies were still slowly rising from the Sandworm when you made the call to Lulu to tell her everything was taken care off. After that, you called Cloud and Roxas to try and get them on their way to come meet you. You sent them your location and told them to invite whoever else they wanted for a party, and hoped they'd see your gummi ship and Lulu's and know where to land. Then once they got there, Lulu would help them figure out where to go next, hopefully.

Lulu's ship landed around twenty minutes later, and Zack greeted her with a hug, and they had a quiet conversation on the ramp of her ship as she walked out into the sand with a parasol to keep the blazing sun off her. You figured he knew she would wish him happy birthday when she came over, so he went to her so they could do that more privately, like he was determined to keep it a surprise from you. It certainly made you curious to see what his surprise was, though to be honest you still didn't know what Lulu's was either.

"Ready for your reward?" Lulu asked you all after lining you up side by side. You exchanged a look with the boys, and you all gave a lazy shrug.

"What do we do?" you asked, looking between your boys and Lulu. You still didn't know what transformative magic was, but you suspected you were about to find out.

"Are you wearing your bathing suits?" she asked all of you, and you nodded, "Good, then who wants to be first?"

Gippal pushed you forward, and you sighed and glared at him before handing him the small bag on your back with your phone and a change of clothes and then stepped forward, "I guess I'll go first."

"Such a good sport." Zack crossed his arms in amusement as you walked up to Lulu. She handed you a burlap over the shoulder bag with a map in it, and as soon as you had it on you looked at her for whatever came next.

"So what exactly is going to hap––!" you began, but before you could finish Lulu held out a hand and you were enveloped in a thick fog. Lights swirled around you, and you began to feel a gasping, burning feeling in your lungs. You tried sucking in air through your mouth, but it just felt like it was choking you. Maybe it was just all the smoke around you, but you really felt like you couldn't breathe. Your legs suddenly felt like jelly underneath you, and you fell to your knees in the sand gasping for air as the smoke died down.

"Oh my god!" Gippal gasped.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈! Ha! Are you kidding me?" Zack rushed over with a smile plastered to his face, but you were too distracted by your sudden inability to breathe to care what they were gushing about.

"Ah... Perhaps we should have done this in the water." Lulu brought a knuckle up to her chin and gave you a curious look as you clawed at the sand in desperation and made terrible wheezing sounds every time you tried to inhale.

"Why?" Gippal asked, looking over you with growing excitement.

"She can't breathe," Lulu said simply, and both boys turned to stare at you.

"She can't... she can't breathe. Oh! She can't breathe!" Zack exclaimed as something clicked in his mind, and he grabbed you under the arms to pull you up then hooked an arm under your knees so he could carry you bridal style before running towards the ocean with you. You put your arm around his neck and tried to just calm down and sit tight until he got you to the water, figuring Lulu did something like give you gills or something else that would allow you to breathe underwater but not on land anymore. You looked down at your knees, and your eyes widened as you saw that she did a lot more than that. You had a tail. A full-on mermaid tail, with shining scales and everything. You grabbed at Zack's shoulder excitedly, and he laughed.

"I know! Just hold on, we're almost there," he said as he continued sprinting towards the water. As soon as he got ankle deep in the cool, crisp seawater, he lowered you down and began splashing water over you. You had to lay completely flat on your back in the water to get fully submerged, but as soon as you did, you felt instant relief. It was almost the same as taking your first breath of air after being underwater for too long but in reverse.

Eventually, you sat up in the water and sighed heavily.

"You okay?" Zack asked with a small smile as you took your shirt off and threw it back towards the beach, so you were just in your bikini top before pulling the bag Lulu gave you back on.

"Yeah, now." You nodded, feeling like as long as your tail was underwater, you could breathe with your torso out of the water. You looked down at your tail and laughed, holding a hand up to your forehead and saying, "I'm a goddamn mermaid."

"You're a goddamn mermaid." He grinned, sitting in the water beside you and reaching for your fins. It was hard to say it looked anything at all like your feet anymore, but it still felt like he was grabbing one of your toes. "What kind of fish are you, anyway? I've never seen a tail like that."

"Well, I'm not a fish, so..." you began, using your tail to scoop up some water and drench him, then you laughed as you ran your fingers over the beautifully colored, almost wispy flares of fin that came off the main tail where your legs were, "You know what? I think I'm a betta fish. Somebody call Genesis, he'll piss himself laughing."

"I wonder what kind of fish I'll be," Zack mused as he reached over to touch the smooth and strange feeling scales on your knee. Well, what was your knee. You shot him a look and cleared your throat in an irritated fashion as he ran his hand down your leg, enjoying the feeling of the strange texture. He flushed when he realized what he was doing, and withdrew his hand, "Sorry... your scales are just really pretty."

"You'll probably be an angelfish. Or a cuttlefish." You teased him, and he rolled his eyes at you while you gave him a sideways look, "Or maybe a birthday fish."

He gasped and stared at you, then broke into a warm smile, "That was terrible."

"I'm a little distracted." You shrugged, splashing more water at him with your fins.

He laughed and splashed some water back at you before sighing and shaking his head with a smile still glued to his face, "Who told you? Did Gippal finally break?

"Lulu did." You gestured with your head back towards the beach where Lulu and Gippal were walking up casually and slowly. Gippal was on the phone, probably calling other people down here to hang out, "Why didn't you?"

"Well, we had a plan. We were going to surprise you with it." He shrugged.

"You wanted to surprise me on your birthday?" You gave him a look.

"It was a really good surprise." He smiled, and you shook your head at him.

"You'll just have to show me after my surprise." You smirked at him, and he laughed.

"Yeah, your surprise might kick mine's ass now that I'm seeing it," he said, looking at your tail again with a huge grin on his face.

"Come on already, let's get this show on the road," you called out to Lulu, who was waiting for Gippal to finish up on the phone.

"Two seconds, woman. Geeze," Gippal called back, hanging up the phone and taking his tank top off before setting all of his things in a pile on the beach by your shirt. Zack got up and walked over to them, and you did your best to lay on your belly and get as close to shore as possible.

"Did you just beach yourself?" Gippal gave you a sideways look as you finally couldn't get any further up onto land while still keeping your tail sufficiently under the water's surface so you could breathe.

"Shut up. Give me my phone." You ignored him, and held out a hand for him to get your phone out of the bag you had given him earlier. It was lucky he was in charge of all electronics, because you and Zack had a tendency to go charging into bodies of water with reckless abandon.

"Why don't you use your shellphone?" He sassed you as he dug around in your bag.

"Bite me." You wiped your wet hands off on his board shorts as he got near, then took the phone and began to dial Roxas' number.

"No thanks. Not a fan of seafood." He gave you one last bit of lip before stepping into the water, "Alright, Lu. Hit me."

While Lulu was busy transforming Gippal, you had your phone conversation trying to get Roxas and his group to hurry up and come out to play.

"It'll be worth waking Riku up, I promise. Just hurry up and get here! Invite Xion, Tidus, and Hayner's groups, too. It's gonna be awesome." You said, hanging up before he could give you any lip or make any excuses. You thought about calling Genesis, but chickened out and decided to shoot him a quick text inviting him and his group to Zack's birthday party with your location. You figured if he was interested, he could show up and Lulu would tell him what was going on from there. And if not, at least you didn't have to hear him reject the offer. Once that was taken care of, you knew Gippal probably invited most of the juniors, so you chucked your phone back over to your pile of stuff and Zack put it away for you before joining Gippal in knee deep water to be transformed.

"Here we go. You'll have four hours before the spell wears off. Try not to be too deep when that time comes," Lulu said, cracking her knuckles before raising a hand and taking aim at the boys. Zack and Gippal both set timers on their watches, and gave her the thumbs up. Smoke enveloped them, and you began to push yourself away from the shore and back out into deeper water. The smoke cleared and the boys fell to their knees and submerged completely. You dipped your head under the water and felt a rush of bubbles escape from your mouth as you laughed in excitement.

Zack had a long gray tail with strong looking fins and a very distinct dorsal fin with a black tip like a reef shark, and Gippal had a golden tail with jagged offshoots that curled inwards like a seahorse.

You held a hand over your mouth as you tried to contain your laughter and your smile, but you just couldn't. This was so cool, and you didn't care if it had you grinning like an idiot. You excitedly began to swim out into open water so you could really test out what swimming was like, and you felt your face start to cramp up from how much you were smiling. It was like you were a whole new person. And you were, kind of. You had never experienced anything like this. You could swim incredibly fast, see clearly without the water hurting your eyes or blurring your vision, and you were able to hear perfectly. It was like being thrown into a new world.

"Come on! Get out here!" You called back to your boys underwater, and your voice had no distortion or any other strange effect. You turned to look at them, feeling your hair and fins billowing around you as you did. This was their first glimpse of the full effect of those betta fish fins glittering and flowing in the water, and they looked more than a little impressed.

"Oh my god..." Zack marveled at you, holding a hand over his heart and hanging his head like it was too much for him.

"I know. She's an angel." Gippal gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder as Zack continued to struggle with his emotions.

"She's so pretty, it hurts!"

"I know, that's my baby. Now pull it together."

"You've gotta be kidding me." Zack continued to stare at you in disbelief, and Gippal rolled his eyes and swam over to you as soon as he saw you get a small smug smile on your face after hearing him.

He cupped both hands around your face and made you look at him before saying, "Don't you listen to him. You are a one out of ten. Maybe even a zero, I don't know. I can't look at you long enough to decide. Seriously. Why do you even leave the house? You know you upset us normal people with how ugly you are. It hurts me to look at you. Your face... vomitrocious."

"Fuck off." You gave him a dry look and knocked his hands off your face.

"Just making sure you don't get a big head."

"What, you don't wanna compete with anyone for having the world's biggest ego?" You drawled, and he blew some bubbles at you in an irritated fashion.

"This is the best birthday ever," Zack gushed as he swam over, hooking one arm around you and the other around Gippal before continuing out to deeper water.

"So, where are we going?" Gippal asked after a few minutes of swimming and marveling at the reefs. You pulled out the map Lulu gave you and held it open for the boys. The paper had been enchanted so water wouldn't ruin it, and there was a clear path charted out towards the sunken machina city. "Oh, okay. So we're going that way." Gippal pointed, and Zack made a face and checked the map again.

"Uh, no. We're going that way."

You just held the map up and sighed.

"It's that way. Look." Gippal pointed at the map aggressively, and Zack waved his hand off and put his finger in a different place on the map.

"No, we're here, so it's this way."

"Oh yeah? Make a bet, bitch." Gippal crossed his arms and you face palmed. Normally Zack was the one keeping the peace between you and Gippal, but every now and again something would happen that would set them against each other. When that happened, no one was safe.

"It's a big city, guys. I bet if we just go straight we'll run into some part of it eventually." You tried, but they weren't having any of it.

"We don't need to swim around with no direction. I know where I'm going." Gippal said.

"Yeah, the wrong way," Zack shot back, and the argument continued. You let go of the map and stopped swimming, just letting yourself sink until they were done. You weren't very far out yet, so the ocean floor wasn't that far away and you hit the sandy gently before long. You just hung out, looking at the coral surrounding you and trying to enjoy seeing all the fish going about their business while your tail waved gently in the ebbing water. The scorching sunlight over the desert felt like it was just gentle rays casting a rainbow of light through the water's surface that washed over and warmed you in the cool water. It would have been your own private paradise if you couldn't hear Zack and Gippal arguing above you still. You had to admit though; it was nice to be able to just drop out of a conversation and sink 20 feet below it without really having to go anywhere or do anything.

You looked back towards land and wondered how long it would take for anyone else to get here, when you heard the final words of the argument: "Fine! You go that way. I'm going this way!"

'Fine."

Fine!"

"FINE!"

"FINE!"

You looked up and saw both of them looking down at you with arms crossed, "Guys... I cannot overstate enough how little I care who's right," you drawled, knowing they were looking for you to pick a winner of their little spat.

"Oh, good. Then you don't mind going the wrong way with Zack for two hours," Gippal challenged, and you sighed again.

"You know, what? Screw it. Fine, I'll pick a side. I'm picking the guy who didn't use me as his personal meat shield. Let's go, Fair," you said, sitting up and pushing off the ground so you could rejoin the level they were having their conversation at. You grabbed hold of Zack's arm and began to swim off in the direction Zack wanted to go. You dared to shoot Gippal a glare over your shoulder, only to find him grinning with his hands behind his head as he watched the two of you leave. Your eyes went wide as you realized he had planned that whole argument, and he just winked at you and chuckled to himself before turning and swimming off. You felt the heat of blood rushing to your cheeks as you suddenly became hyper aware that now it was just the two of you completely alone in your own little world.

"Hey, maybe we shouldn't let him go off on his own."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, he's wrong." Zack shook his head defiantly.

"Oh, I know he is, but he's gonna get eaten by a shark or swim into a whale or something. The ocean is a terrible place. We can't leave him on his own."

"Let him. It'll be a great birthday present if he gets eaten by a shark." He laughed.

"You don't mean that. That's the competitive rage mode talking... besides, if a shark shows up, I'm leaving you for dead. I do not play with sharks," you mumbled, scanning the horizon with a watchful eye.

"Are you scared of open water?" He smirked at you, seeing your nervous stiffening as soon as sharks were brought up, "Did we finally find something you're scared of?"

"... No...." you grumbled in a small voice, looking around the water uncomfortably, like now would be the most opportunistic time for a shark to show up.

"Come on, he'll be fine. We go off on our own all the time, you said so yourself. Besides, you just got back from a solo outing."

"Yeah, and that outing ended with a search party coming after me."

"Well, that's because we care what happens to you. Gippal? Not so much." He shot you a cheeky grin, and you gave in.

"Alright, fine. You're the birthday boy, after all. I still can't believe you didn't tell me." You changed the subject while internally marveling at the world around you. The ocean floor fell away, and you began to see machina towers sticking out of the sand the further out you went. It almost looked like a castle. Old and forgotten and taken over by the sea, but still standing.

"I'm not ten. Birthdays aren't such a big deal to me anymore."

"Well, Lulu still thinks of you as ten. She planned this whole thing," you said.

"You knew we were going to be turned into merpeople and kept that a secret this whole time?" He eyed you like he was genuinely impressed by your self-control if that was the case.

"I knew she had something planned. I just didn't know what." You shrugged, and he stopped swimming and eyed you suspiciously, "What?"

"You sure you're not holding out on me? There's not going to be some surprise party waiting for me in this sunken city?"

"Who would have had time to set it up?" You laughed, "And I'm sure I could try and hide a cake, but I doubt it would taste any good down here and there wouldn't be any candles. We'll just have to save that for the afterparty."

"Afterparty?" He smirked and you grinned.

"I may have a cheesecake hidden on the ship." You shrugged, knowing from Lulu that it was his favorite, and he looked like a whole new wave of excitement washed over him.

"You're amazing."

"I do my best." You laughed, and he took your hand before continuing to swim along towards the city with his fingers interlaced with yours. You weren't sure if he didn't want to get separated or if he just wanted to hold your hand, but you weren't complaining.

"Hey, get a look at those shells. They're just like the ones Basch collects," Zack said, pointing out some frankly pretty amazing looking conch shells sitting half buried in the sand. They were bright pink and yellow, and totally massive.

"He collects shells?" you asked, and he laughed.

"He collects everything," he began, then as the two of you swam over to the shells he explained, "Basch likes to pick up something from every world he visits. He's got a whole room full of stuff he's collected over the years. Like materia balls from Gaia, cactuar statuettes from Eos, and shells from Destiny Island."

"I knew he liked collecting things, but I had no idea what any of it meant. I thought he just liked junk," you said, knowing you saw some oddities around the house and remembering a conversation about getting Tidus to sign a blitzball and Roxas to sign a guitar for him once. "Maybe we should bring him some machina?" you wondered, thinking if Basch already had a shell collection he didn't really need more, especially not from a different world than his collection.

"Oh no. You're not touching any of that. Unless you want to go get a tetanus shot from VenVen right after." Zack stopped your train of thought right then and there after seeing how rusted and algae covered any machine you might find down here would be.

"Okay, fine. Let's just stick with shells." You sighed, continuing to dive down towards the ocean floor. "God, look at them," you mused as you got closer. They were absolutely huge, with the spirally conch-part being at least the size of your head.

"I bet if you hold that up to your ear, it sounds like a toilet flushing," Zack said as he picked one up and you laughed.

"Yeah, you're probably right. He'll love that." You agreed, taking the shell from him and putting it in the bag for safekeeping. "Ooo, what about some of those?" you asked after something else caught your eye.

"Sand dollars?" Zack followed your eye line until he saw the small white rock looking things you were headed towards. "I don't think he has any of those, but we can find something cooler than that."

"Oh yeah?" you asked, raising a brow at him and picking one up and turning it over in your hand before deciding to add it to your bag anyway.

"Yeah," he challenged, and you crossed your arms and chose to use one of Gippal's favorite phrases to start shit.

"Make a bet, bitch."

∞

"This is not what I had in mind for this whole adventure, but I guess it figures." Zack sighed lightly to himself and leaned casually against the doorframe of an old, wrecked building that was half stuck in the sand, where a certain mermaid had gotten herself stuck at the hips between two broken planks of the metal door.

By now, the two of you had made it into the lost city, and were continuing your scavenger hunt for cool collectables in the remains of the abandoned buildings. You saw something shiny through a half open doorway, and tried to squeeze your way in... only to discover your hips weren't quite as narrow as you might have hoped, and you were completely stuck.

"You gonna help me, or are you gonna keep staring at my ass?" you grumbled as you struggled to push yourself into the room by twisting your hips from side to side and kicking your fins.

"I'm gonna keep staring at your ass. How does helping you help me win this bet?" he asked smugly, and you didn't even need to see his face to know he was smirking.

"Who... needs you... anyway!" you said through gritted teeth as you turned on your side and pushed your hands against the door as hard as you could. It hurt, but you were able to squeeze your hips through the opening with brute force. As soon as your hips were through, you went flying into the room from all the momentum you worked up, and you crashed into the far side of the room in a cloud of sand and algae. You coughed and tried to wave the sand away from your face so you could see, and Zack poked his head in through the opening you had gone through.

"Hey, you okay in there?" he called out to you, trying to find your figure through all the floating debris you kicked up when you crash landed.

"We're gonna need a medic..."

"Wait, why? ≈≈≈≈≈≈! Are you okay!?" He tried to follow you into the room, forcing one arm in, then the other, but there was just no way he was going to be able to get his chest and shoulders through the narrow opening. "≈≈≈≈≈! What happened? Why do we need a medic?"

"Because I just kicked your ass to the curb and back." Your hand suddenly shot out of the cloud of sand with the strap of an old leather bag caught in your fingers. You emerged from the debris with a huge grin, swimming over to the doorway where he was now hanging bitterly with a sour expression on his face.

"Could you not be an asshole? You know I worry about you, right?" He sighed, trying to pull his shoulders free from the small opening.

"I'm gonna keep being an asshole until you guys learn that I can take care of myself." You shook your head at him, then opened the bag for him to see what was inside. It was an old camera bag, with an antique sphere recorder and several spheres. It was one of the glittery spheres sitting near the bag that caught your eye to begin with. They probably weren't functional anymore, but they looked cool and you figured Basch might get a kick out of trying to repair and restore them.

"Can't you just pretend like you need us? Just a little bit? Just to humor me, even." He gave you a dry look as you pushed the camera bag through the opening for him to take.

"Alright, fine. Help me get out of here. You already lost this bet, so you might as well," you said as you got yourself stuck in the doorway again when you tried to leave the room.

"I'm gonna pretend all I heard just now was 'help me, Zack. You're so strong, and smart, and handsome, and no one else could possibly get me out of here but you. You're my hero, please save me,'" he said in a strained voice as he took you by the arms and tried pulling you out.

"You already know you're strong, smart, and handsome. Why do I have to say it? Would you even like it if I talked like that?" you asked with closed eyes and a clenched jaw as he pulled harder and harder. He realized pulling your arms wasn't getting him anywhere, so he held an arm around your waist and pushed off the door with his other hand with as much force as he could muster while simultaneously kicking his tail vigorously.

"Maybe! It'd certainly be a nice change of pace from the usual––!" He gasped as you suddenly wiggled free of the door and came crashing into him. The two of you tumbled backwards away from the door, circling around and around until you were completely tangled up in one another.

When you finally slowed down enough that you could see what was happening again, you had to push your hair out of his face and yours to get it floating upwards again. When you did, you caught him giving you a 'sick of your shit' look, and you just flashed him a cheeky smile in return as you put your hands on his shoulders to try and orient yourself to him through all the spinning.

"Now, who would ever want a change of pace?" you asked glibly, and his expression softened.

"You do take us to some interesting places, I guess," he mused, looking around as the two of you continued slowly spinning from the residual momentum of your collision.

"Oh, speaking of, we should really start looking for Gippal soon. Because he is not here, so... that only leaves the sharks..." you said looking around and noticing how distinctly alone the two of you were.

"Yeah, alright."

(Optional romance scene... but like there's no transition out of it, so... just read it. We've already established I'm a bad and lazy writer.)

"Oh! Wait!" You stopped looking for Gippal altogether as soon as something shining in the distance caught your eye, "What's that over there?" You used his shoulders as a pushing off point before swimming off to investigate.

"Wait, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈! Don't go running off!" he called after you, and you laughed.

"I'm not running, I'm swimming," you replied simply.

"Semantics!" He gave an exasperated sigh before chasing after you. When he caught up, he saw you with your face pressed up against a window looking into another long abandoned building. "What do you see?" he asked, rubbing away the algae with his forearm before cupping his hands around his eyes and joining you in looking in.

"Not sure." You shrugged, pulling your face back and putting your hand on the window before using some ice magic to freeze it over. Once it was frozen, it just took a small blast of force magic to shatter a hole in it that was just big enough for you to get inside.

"You could at least make a hole big enough for me, too!" he complained as you disappeared inside.

"What if I find your birthday present in here?" You laughed at his frustration as you continued to search the room.

"What if you find a shark?"

"If I find a shark, you better come in here and get me," you warned, only vaguely paying attention to your conversation as you searched for whatever it was that had been gleaming in the sunlight earlier.

"Don't worry, I will." He sighed, thinking about trying to break the glass and make a bigger hole, but chances were he'd just cut himself. And if he did that, then you'd be even more worried about sharks and he'd never hear the end of it.

"Ah-ha!" you exclaimed, snatching something shiny from a table top nearby.

"What is it?" he asked, trying to peer in to see what you found, but you held it behind your back as soon as you saw him looking.

"Turn around," you instructed as you came swimming back out through the hole in the window. He sighed and turned his back to you, and you couldn't keep from giggling as you snuck up behind him and dropped some weird, clunky ancient Al Bhed jewelry around his neck. It was definitely some kind of ladies' jewelry, and kind of looked like it might have been a large bird or something before all the rust and barnacles set in.

"Wh––≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, what is this?" He scoffed as he turned around to face you while holding the strange charm from the necklace in his palm.

"Happy birthday!" You laughed, and he gave you a small shove.

"You brat." He rolled his eyes, and you just beamed at him as you ran a hand through your wild and free floating hair. He gave a small smile as he watched you, then finally said, "You're having fun today, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah. How could I not be? I always have fun on our little adventures." You gave a small shrug, but he shook his head a little.

"No, I mean it. I haven't seen you this happy in... ever." He got that soft smile and warm look in his eyes that made your insides feel a little like pudding.

"What are you talking about? I'm always happy." You shifted your shoulders around sheepishly as you tried to corral all of your hair into your hands to stop it from floating in between you during your conversation.

"You certainly like to pretend you are," he mumbled, and you shot him a look.

"Hey," you said in a sharp, scolding tone, as if to warn him not to open that can of worms. Not today.

"I didn't mean anything by it. It's just... you don't like to make anyone worry about you, so you hide the pain, hide the fear, put on a smile... whatever it takes so no one asks questions. It's kind of admirable, really... but I know what it looks like when you're actually happy. I'm just glad I get to see it sometimes, and be a part of that." He continued smiling at you like he hadn't just said something that felt a bit like a kick to the teeth to you.

"You know, it's funny," you began, ringing your hands around your hair nervously as you spoke, "Back in Traverse Town, sometimes, I used to... spend so much time worrying about myself that... it was almost offensive whenever anyone else started to worry about me. Like there's nothing anyone else could possibly say, or think, or do, that I hadn't already thought of myself, so why bother? But it's different with you. It's like... I want you to be there; I want you to care. I like it when you're nosy, and I like how you can care so much that it annoys me sometimes, that it annoys everyone around us." You felt like your cheeks were on fire, and he was too close to you not to notice, but you wanted to finish the thought no matter how embarrassed you were, "I'm... I'm really lucky to have you, you know? You said you didn't think you'd be a good fit as a teammate for me, but I don't think it could have been anyone else. No one else is stubborn enough to keep caring about me while I shut you out at every opportunity."

"It's the Fair charm. It takes a lot for us to get something through our thick skulls. The only ones with thicker skulls are the Strifes. It's why we've always gotten along so well." He pulled you into his arms for a warm, secure hug, and you let your head rest heavy against his chest as he squeezed you. It seemed like that was the end of the conversation, and you had closed your eyes to just enjoy the moment of closeness as he held you, but then he went on like something you said wasn't sitting quietly with him, "You like it when I annoy you about your stigma? I always worry you think I'm prying."

"Well, you are prying... but I know you just want to help. And you do help. You might not be any good at white magic, but you make me feel normal again. Like no matter what happens, or how much I'm freaking out or start feeling like I'm losing my mind, you'll always be there with that dopey smile to drag me back to reality."

"Dopey smile?" He raised an eyebrow at you and tried to pull an offended face, but he was smiling so much right now it didn't really work.

"That's the one." You smirked at him, resting your forearms on his shoulders and lacing your fingers behind his neck. He gave a scoffing laugh like he was about to retort, but stopped dead in his tracks when he saw your gaze fall from his eyes to his lips. It was hard to say if he forgot you had just made fun of him, or if he was just going to let it slide for the sake of not distracting you in case you were about to kiss him. It certainly looked like you were thinking about it, and he wanted to see how this played out. It always felt like he was the one chasing after you, and it was hard to tell if you were ever going to come around to the idea of returning his affections, but here you were, giving him a look that made his heart beat uncomfortably fast. Your eyes slowly began to close as you leaned in until he felt the electric bristle of your skin coming into contact with his.

There was no height difference between the two of you, and you were both almost completely weightless underwater, so he was able to pull you closer with ease by gently gripping around the base of your ribcage and guiding you in closer until he could wrap his arms around your back. He held you in such a way that you were above him, and he had to crane his neck to look up at you. You laughed as he pulled you in, then cupped a hand against his cheek as you went in for another kiss, using your other hand for stability by placing it against his shoulder. You began to knot your fingers in his hair and stopped worrying about floating or drifting away after he made it clear he wasn't about to let you go for anything in the world by locking his forearm behind your back and reaching his other hand up to the back of your head. He traced the contour of your ear with his fingers before parting them through your wild hair until his hand could wrap around to the back of your head and he was able to pull your lips into his even harder, like, he wanted more than the gentle grazing kisses you were so shyly giving him.

A little gasp of surprise escaped you as he did, and he started smiling so much you couldn't help but pull back and laugh a little as you realized how much harder that made it to kiss him. He hooked his fingers into a fistful of your hair right at the base of your neck and used that to guide your lips back to his after you pulled away slightly during your giggle fit. This might have been your moment to be the one to kiss him for once, but he wasn't going to let that stop him from keeping you on track when little things started to distract you, or you started to lose your nerve.

"Yo! They're over here!" Gippal called out, and your heart nearly stopped. You jerked away from Zack and looked around for Gippal over your shoulder, wondering with a beet red face how much he had seen.

"Goddamnit, where's a shark when you need one?" Zack sighed heavily, watching helplessly as you broke out of his grasp and spun around to try and find Gippal.

"What are you doing here?" you asked after finally spotting him swimming over to you with a big group of people. He was out in front by a good ways, and didn't seem to be smirking or giggling at you, so maybe all he really saw was your brightly colored tail, or maybe your hair, and he knew he had found you without really seeing what you were doing.

"I brought the party." He shrugged with a cocky smirk, gesturing behind himself to where a whole hoard of people was coming over. Most of their friends and your friends were heading over, and you forgot all about your panic when you saw the way the transformation magic had taken a different effect on all of them.

Sora was the first one to come over to you, and he took you by the hands and spun around with you with an excited smile plastered to his face, "Ha! I told you she wouldn't be a shark!" he called back to Riku after letting go of you, so you were caught in a little vortex from his momentum that caused you to keep spinning as he circled around you. He had a blue dolphin's tail and looked like he was about as comfortable in the water as he was on land.

"Well, there's a surprise. You owe him $5 gil." Roxas crossed his arms smugly and shot Riku a look, and you laughed as you realized he also had a betta fish tail. His was black with white at the very ends of his wispy tail, making him look so punk rock it was almost cool. Like for once, he wasn't just a pale, blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy trying to be edgy, but he actually looked like a bit of a badass... not that you'd ever tell him that.

"Hey, look at that. We're the same." You smirked at Roxas as you swam over to him and Riku.

"You two certainly are cut from the same cloth," Riku grumbled, and you laughed as you recognized the white and gray and jagged looking fins to be shark fins.

"Thought I was gonna be like you?" You scoffed, and he got the faintest hint of a flush as he rolled his eyes.

"Oh please. I just thought there was no way you'd be anything other than a bull shark. No one's more aggressive than you."

"Says the great white." You raised an eyebrow at him, then tried to ignore him as you looked back at Xion. She had these amazing jet black squid tentacles that would fan out behind her then push her forward with a burst of speed as they clamped back together. You practically shoved Roxas over while trying to get over to her to check them out.

While the two of you were gushing about each others' tails, Naminé came over with her blindingly white tail that was the picture-perfect representation of what you thought of when you pictured a mermaid's tail, and Kairi was right beside her, and looked like her lower half had been transformed into a stunning pink and yellow jellyfish with long, flowing tendrils.

"Frankly, ≈≈≈≈≈≈ I'm a little surprised you're not a jellyfish, considering how often you accidentally shock people. Or an eel," Xion said once the four of you had circled up and ignored the boys as everyone made fun of Reno's manatee tail.

"Jellyfish don't shock, they sting," Kairi said, and you nodded.

"Yeah, besides, I don't think it has anything to do with magic type. I think it's more personality. Like, Axel isn't some kind of weird firefish. He's not even red," you said, looking over at Axel, who actually had a black tail with the markings of a killer whale. (orcha? Same difference ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ )

"Demyx looks cute though, doesn't he?" Xion said, admiring the bright blue, black, and yellow markings on his fin.

"He looks like a blue tang! How cute is that?" you agreed, and then Kairi and Naminé exchanged a look.

"Wait, Xion..." Kairi began, and you got the feeling that you were clearly missing something.

"What?" She shrugged, looking between them. Then all at once, her face went redder than you had ever seen it, "Guys, n-no, I just..."

"Oh my god," Kairi smirked, and Naminé pinched her arm.

"You like him, don't you?"

"No!" she snapped, then looked at you, "Tell them!"

"Uh, she doesn't?" You gave a half-hearted shrug, and she sighed at you.

"Real convincing." She glared at you.

"Wh-I don't know!" you shot back, and she punched you in the arm.

"≈≈≈≈≈, back me up!"

"They're bandmates, there's like a code of honor against that kind of thing," you said more definitively as you rubbed your arm, but Kairi and Naminé weren't buying it.

"Uh-huh."

"Hey! Look at you guys!" Tifa said as she swam up with Yuffie. Tifa had a deep red tail and had to braid her hair to keep it from going all over the place like yours, and Yuffie, much to everyone's surprise, had what looked like a gator's tail. It was green with a yellow underbelly and textured spots on the back with cool looking little gator lumpies (true anatomical alligator term, leave me alone). Cloud was behind them and broke off to join the guys instead of coming over to say any kind of hello in typical Cloud fashion, and you rolled your eyes as you saw he also had some kind of shark tail, though you weren't sure what kind specifically. A mean one, probably.

"What were you guys talking about?" Yuffie asked excitedly, liking the facial expressions she was picking up from you guys.

"Nothing," Xion snapped, and Kairi sighed at her.

"We're just hanging around. Come on, let's go say happy birthday to Zack." You changed the subject, taking Xion's hand and swimming off to where the boys were gathered.

∞

Once everyone was done having a laugh about all the different looks of your tails, the group moved off to explore the city some more, until that got boring and then it became clear that some of the boys had brought party games to play. They set up a little blitzball court and got to playing almost as soon as they were out in open enough water. You decided to stick to your 'I don't wanna play blitz' guns after getting pegged by the ball a few rounds by overly competitive boys who were way too hyped up on energy now that they were physically equipped to properly play the underwater sport without the need for breath holding or oxidization tablets. You had enough of competitive rage mode the past few weeks and decided to sit this one out and have some quality time with the girls.

"So, gun to your head, fuck-marry-kill... Sora, Roxas, and Riku?" Yuffie asked Xion, who looked physically repulsed by the mere question.

"I've known all of them since we were in diapers... I don't... just pull the trigger, I guess. I'm out." She said, a grimace still on her face at the thought.

"Please, that's an easy one. Marry Sora, and Riku and Roxas are totally interchangeable. Both equally fuckable, but incredibly killable, too. It's a wash," Selphie said. She had arrived with Tidus and Wakka just a few minutes ago, and her boys naturally left her behind in the dust when they found out there was blitz going on. Shortly after she got there, Olette, Hayner, and Pence showed up too, and Olette's boys also broke off almost immediately. Selphie went on, "I've got one; fuck-marry-kill Cloud, Leon, Zack."

"Ugh, gross. That's my brother." You shot her a look.

"So kill him." She shrugged like that statement was no big deal.

"Fuck Leon, marry Cloud, kill Zack," Tifa said, and everyone laughed.

"Seriously? You killed Zack so you could marry Cloud?" You laughed especially hard.

"The game left me no choice. Besides, Zack's basically my younger brother," she shrugged, getting a small smirk as she watched the boys playing their little sport up overhead while the dirtiest of conversations was going on just below them. If they only knew.

"Let's play a different game, then," Naminé suggested, looking up from the flower crown she was weaving out of seaweed and these little pink flowers that were lining the open field of sand you were all underwater-sunbathing in beneath the blitz game.

"She's just mad 'cause she doesn't wanna have to say 'fuck.'" Xion smirked at her, and she shot her a challenging look.

"Who would you rather fuck: Gippal, Angeal, or Genesis?" she asked Xion directly, and everyone gaped at her.

"She just said the f-word..." Selphie mumbled to you in disbelief.

"We've all been saying the word fuck repeatedly." You rolled your eyes at her.

"Well, we all know who ≈≈≈≈≈ would pick out of that crew." Yuffie winked at you and gave you a hard nudge to the ribs with her elbow, and you shrugged in a completely unphased manner.

"We all know who everyone would pick out of that crew," you shot back.

"... Gippal?" Olette asked cluelessly, and everyone turned and stared at her in stunned silence.

"No, sweetie... Genesis..." Selphie patted her shoulder and gave her a face that read 'you poor lost child.'

"I mean, hey... you can pick Gippal. If that's what you're into..." Yuffie mumbled, and Olette began to blush fiercely like she realized she said something wrong without thinking.

"Have any of you guys actually done anything even close to sex with a guy?" Tifa asked, looking around the circle. Everyone got kind of quiet and flushed and kept their hands down except for Yuffie, Selphie, Tifa herself, and then to the surprise of everyone, Naminé's hand went up, too.

"What?"

"Nami!"

"Oh my god!"

You, Kairi, and Selphie all turned to her with mouths hanging open.

"When did that happen?" Selphie hit her in the arm, and she just gave a light shrug.

"Things have been going really well with Pence these last few months."

"Why didn't you tell me!?" Kairi gushed at her, and Tifa laughed.

"Good for you, Nams."

"How was it?" Yuffie asked with a big grin on her face.

"It was... nice. He really cares about me, so it was... I don't know. He made sure I felt special, and safe and once that happened, it was completely fine. It wasn't scary, and there was no pressure at all. It was really nice." She had a faint blush on her face but otherwise looked pretty comfortable talking about it.

"Wait, Yuffie, who--" you began, but she was so excited to finally get to talk about it with you that she didn't even let you finish.

"Vincent! It happened this summer while we were--"

"Working for Cid on an airship run. We all know the story." Tifa rolled her eyes.

"≈≈≈≈≈ doesn't know it." She shrugged.

"So wait, the whole time you were dating, you and Riku never...?" Olette asked Kairi, who shrugged.

"Nope. I guess he's old-fashioned... that or he even hated me then a little bit, too... If you had to pick one guy to lose it to, who would it be?" Kairi asked the circle, and Xion scoffed.

"Tch, none of those losers, that's for sure," she said, glaring up at the boys swimming around overhead.

"Not even Demyx?" Kairi shot her a knowing look, and she flushed badly.

"Hell no!"

"I dunno... they are the people in our closest circle of friends. Statistically speaking, it's probably more likely to be one of them than it is a stranger." Selphie shrugged.

"I sure hope not." Xion sighed, seeing Tidus do a super lame victory dance after scoring a goal.

"Don't worry; you never know who you're gonna meet." Naminé gave her a reassuring look as she dropped her completed flower crown on Xion's head before starting to work on another.

"What about you, ≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Tifa asked, and you rolled your eyes.

"Why do you wanna know? So you can tell Cloud, and he'll scare him off?"

"She would never. This is a trust circle; everything you say here, stays here." Yuffie jumped to her defense.

"But nice to know there is a 'he' you're thinking of," Selphie smirked at you.

"There's really not. It was a hypothetical he," you said, and Yuffie scoffed.

"There's a long list of non-hypothetical dudes lining up behind you, ≈≈≈≈≈. Maybe you should make a decision."

"Or not." You shrugged.

"Still though. I wish I were you." Selphie sighed wistfully, "I mean, Genesis seems like he'd be the type to show some real romance before, during, and after. And I bet Zack would be an attentive lover... eager to please, anyway, and that is not a bad thing." She grinned as your face got redder and redder, like, she was clearly enjoying embarrassing you.

"I think I'm gonna go let them beam the blitzball at my head a few times. That sounds like more fun than this conversation."

"Oooo or Ven. I have it on good authority no one has a gentler touch than our mysterious little doctor-to-be. Healing hands, you know?"

"Whose authority?" You blinked at her, wondering who could have possibly told her something like that, and she giggled at your reaction.

"Fine, I made it up, but look at your face. I know it's true."

"And Tifa says he loooves~ you." Yuffie teased you in a sing-songy voice.

"He does not. What have you been saying?" You eyed Tifa, but she just shrugged.

"Well, if it does end up being Ven, at least you know it won't hurt. And no rippy, tearing business either." Xion gave you a sympathetic look after the embarrassing conversation centered its attention on you next.

"Oh, that's a myth." Tifa waved her off, "It might be a little uncomfortable your first time, but unless the guy is being an aggressive asshole about things, or trying to start before you're ready, it shouldn't hurt. There shouldn't be any severe pain, ever, first time or not, and not everyone bleeds. Especially if you're taking things slow and he's listening to you."

"And if he's being an aggressive asshole, you're allowed to kick him in the dick. That'll put a full stop to any funny business." Yuffie chipped in, and Tifa nodded like that was sound advice.

"You know, if I had to pick one of those guys up there, I think I'd like it to be..." Kairi began, then paused as her eye scanned around the makeshift blitz field, "Hayner."

"Wait, really?" Selphie gave her a surprised look.

"Why?" Xion gave a half-laugh, half-scoff.

"He's been really nice to me since... well, since everything went down. I figure it takes a really big person to still be nice to someone when they're at their lowest and all your other friends are against them. The easier thing to do would be to walk away or join in the hate storm. But he didn't. He was actually pretty sweet to me through the whole thing."

"Hey, there you go. That sounds really nice, Kai. I hope it works out for you." Yuffie gave her a nod of encouragement.

"Xion, you have to pick someone now." Kairi urged her.

"Fine. Lavi." She shot back, just to spite her.

"What?" Kairi shot her a dry glare, "Ugh, Xion, don't bring him into this. I don't wanna think about that."

"He's such a flirt, how could you not?" Selphie laughed.

"Lavi's your brother, right? When am I finally gonna get to meet him?" you asked her and she turned her glare to you.

"Oh no, you don't get to meet him. One look at you, and we'll never get him to shut up. You're never gonna meet him if I have anything to say about it. He's annoying enough as it is."

"Well, you will when we go to celebrate Halloween, but we'll put you in a costume to cover up that pretty little face." Xion pinched your cheek, and you punched her arm in return.

"Shut up."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, your turn. Pick someone." Yuffie turned all attention back on you.

"I don't know. I guess... " You thought about it for a second, about Ven or Zack or Genesis, and how it would be something so frustratingly embarrassing for you to even consider. Then you remembered something. "I guess I'd pick Axel." You finally said, remembering your little moment with him in the hot springs of Mt. Gagazet. Everything was so simple with him. He didn't need any motive or deep underlying emotions to drive him, and you wouldn't feel so embarrassed or torn about the decision of who to pick, because it wouldn't really be picking a guy and facing up to your feelings for him. It would just be physical, which was all they were asking about anyway. It was hard to keep your feelings for all the guys in your life straight in your head, and the closest you got to telling someone you had feelings for them ended with that person sprinting full speed in the opposite direction of you without stopping until there were a few worlds in between you. Maybe love just wasn't for you, and Axel's brand of casual intimacy was a perfect solution for you.

"What?" Tifa choked on nothing as you said it.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈!" Naminé gasped out in total surprise.

"Oh my g o d!" Selphie looked so excited that it seemed her soul might ascend at any second.

"There goes your 'gentle, romantic lover' theory, Sel. ≈≈≈≈≈≈ likes it messy and rough!" Yuffie knocked into you with her shoulder and gave you the biggest grin on her face that you'd ever seen.

"But... why?" Tifa blurted in utter confusion, like, she just couldn't help herself. She looked a little sad, to be honest, though you couldn't say why.

"Well, the way I see it, there are only two reasons to have sex. Either because you love someone deeply, or because you just wanna do it and don't really wanna have to think about it too much. Sorting through my feelings sounds stressful and hard, and someone is bound to get hurt. With Axel, it wouldn't be like that."

"So... you want it to be him because you don't love him?" Naminé gave you a very confused look, and you shrugged.

"I guess."

"To be fair, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, I think a lot of guys would be willing to do it with you without needing to be totally in love, but... I guess I see your point. It can be a pretty vulnerable thing to do with someone, and making it casual like that probably takes away some of the emotional sting that could come with it. Yeah, okay. I get it." Yuffie leveled with you, biting her cheek as she looked up at the boys. Axel was easy enough to spot with that flaming red hair, and she made a face as if to deliberate if that was really a good enough answer from you.

"Well, he certainly is attractive." Selphie joined Yuffie in looking up at him, "He might break your bed, but it would definitely be fun. I see your point, too."

"I don't. You big chicken." Kairi shook her head at you, "You're just afraid to hurt anyone, so you're weaseling your way out of making a tough decision."

"I'm just gonna take all of my emotions, swallow them down real hard, and keep it all right here. Then one day, I'll die," you said, holding a hand over your heart with a bitter expression, "As long as I'm allowed to, I'm gonna weasel," you shot back defensively.

"I wanna know who hurt you to make you think like that about romance, but yeah. You can weasel." Kairi gave you a look.

"It's all hypothetical, anyway, right?" Tifa shot you a look that made you suspicious of the 'trust circle,' and made you feel like if you didn't quickly agree that this was a hypothetical situation you might be hearing from Cloud about it later. Or, at least, maybe Axel would hear from him. If 'hearing from Cloud' meant the same thing as Axel getting his jaw broken by a mean right cross, anyway.

"Yeah, just cause you put me on the spot, and I don't wanna think about it." You agreed with her, and she seemed at least a little bit relieved.

"Okay good. I know it's hard, but a lot of people might really care for you. You shouldn't just dismiss that because it's hard to deal with, you know? Someone might really love you, and that's not fair to them." Tifa said earnestly, doing everything within her power to keep her eyes on you and not look up at Zack.

"I know." You sighed, feeling like this was an unexpected guilt trip she was hitting you with all of a sudden. It didn't help that she was staring at you so hard it felt like she was trying to see into your soul.

"Like Genesis. The only times I've ever even seen him talking to girls before was when he was rejecting them. But with you, he talks, he smiles... he even laughs. I've never seen him laugh like that around anyone." Selphie said a bit jealously, shooting you a small glare as she took the latest wreath of flowers Naminé had hand-woven and dropped it on your head.

"Well, you would know. You do spend most of your days stalking him. And who says he's not just laughing because I'm funny?" You shrugged.

"You're not that funny," Kairi said, giving you a look briefly before her eyes scanned upwards for Riku. He was another guy that was difficult to make smile, but you cracked him up all the time. She had to work her ass off to join the same clubs as him and make friends with all of his friends just to get close to him when she moved to Traverse Town years ago. She had been in love with him since fifth grade, but he barely even noticed her until freshman year when Selphie set them up. She got the feeling he didn't even really like her at first, but he was just too polite to say anything until everyone just started assuming they were dating. Then she told him how much she liked him, and he was too nice to ever say he didn't feel the same, so they stayed together for months. Sora was one of the only people she felt like she could talk to about her issues with being stuck in a one-sided relationship, and over time it kind of started to seem like maybe he might like her. So she told him she would break up with Riku, and then she started seeing Sora... only she didn't break up with Riku, because she just loved the idea of being with him too much. It hurt that he didn't return her feelings, but at least if they were still dating she could pretend. Then she ended up hurting both of them so badly when everyone found out, and she realized that Riku really did care about her in his own way. Everything she worked at building for years crumbled down in seconds when Riku caught her kissing Sora. It took her years to even get on Riku's radar, but you snared his heart within hours of stepping foot on Traverse Town. And even more infuriating, it seemed like you did it all on accident. It was like something about you just lit up the room, and they were just moths drawn to that light. So many people were wrapped up in you, and you just shrugged them off. All of them, and for no specific reason that she could see. You didn't even realize you were doing it, either, and that somehow made it worse in her eyes. It was hard to say if you even realized Riku had feelings for you.

"Clearly I'm funnier than any of you assholes," you mused, completely apathetic to everything they were trying to imply about you. "I mean, have you heard my eggplant joke? So, the penguin goes up to the—"

"Shut up!" "Don't!" A chorus of voices called out from the circle to stop you from getting your favorite joke going.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, you have a lot of good qualities to offer, and it's really not surprising so many of them have fallen for you. Maybe you should start taking their feelings seriously," Tifa said but you didn't seem swayed.

"Nah, it's because I'm funny. You guys are just a bad audience."

"You're kind of messed up, you know that?" Xion bullied you, to which you just gave a lazy shrug like that wasn't even the worst insult you'd heard this day. And, living with Gippal, it really wasn't.

You shrugged simply, letting her insult roll right off your shoulder like it was nothing before changing the subject, "Hey, Olette, you haven't picked anyone."

"Aqua." She said with a dreamy look on her face, then she realized she said that out loud and covered her mouth with her hand. "O-oh! I mean--!" She got red in the face and struggled to get any words out as everyone stared at her.

"Alright, Olette! I get that." You laughed, giving her an encouraging pat on the back to show that she really didn't have anything to be embarrassed about.

"Oh, hell yeah! Aqua's a fucking queen." Yuffie nodded in agreement.

"S-seriously?" She gaped at you, a hand still covering half her face.

"Oh my god, are you kidding me? I idolize her," you said.

"She could punch me in the face, and I'd probably say thank you. She's totally hot." Yuffie continued.

"Spot the bisexuals," Kairi smirked, seeing how most everyone in the circle still looked pretty shocked by Olette's answer besides you and Yuffie.

"Pansexual, thank you very much." Yuffie corrected, and you just scratched your cheek.

"I don't even know, man. Who cares?" You shrugged.

"Couldn't even be bothered to put enough thought into your love life to decide what your sexual orientation is, huh?" Xion gave you a sideways look.

"It's on my to-do list." You brushed her look off completely.

"I'm more interested in who's on your to-do list." Selphie put an elbow into your ribs and smirked at you.

"You're nasty, and you need Jesus." You rolled your eyes at her.

"Shame about Terra, though." Naminé added, trying to be supportive of Olette.

"Hey, I'll take him off her hands." Selphie offered, and everyone laughed.

"Hey guys, whatcha laughing at?" Roxas asked suddenly, startling the girls who had their back to him. Everyone was so enthralled with the conversation that no one even saw him swim over.

"Ugh, Roxas, go away." Xion groaned at the sight of him.

"Yeah, girls only. Get lost." Selphie added.

"Ouch, guys. Really." He glared at them, then gave you a look, "≈≈≈≈≈≈, you got a sec, or is this 'exclude and insult Roxas hour' for you, too?"

"Aw, look. He's mad." Yuffie snickered.

"I always have time for you, best buddy," you said, getting up in such a way that you dumped a bunch of sand on Xion with your tail. She scoffed and gave you a punch to the fins as you swam up to meet Roxas.

"Oh, is that the fun lie we're telling today?" Roxas sassed you as you got up to his level and used his shoulder for balance while you looked down at your tail to check if you could see a bruise from where Xion hit you.

"Just listen to you. You're such a saltwater fish." You shook your head at him with a laugh.

"Maybe I wouldn't be so salty if you weren't so obnoxious all the time."

"Hey, you're the one who wanted to talk to me." You shrugged, then pulled him along by the arm to get him away from the prying ears of all the girls down below. They seemed a little too interested in what the two of you were up to for their own good, so you decided to get away while you still could. "So what did you want, anyways?"

"I can't just stop by for a chat?"

"Well, I can tell you've been mad at me since the Tonberry, so... no?" You shrugged casually.

"I'm not mad at you." He shook his head a little, but the expression on his face said otherwise.

"You are, too. I know you're jealous that Riku decided to take off with me for his little pouting party, not you. It's okay."

"What? That's not--yeah, I'm a little pissed you guys left me with Sora all day, but that's not why I'm mad at you." He crossed his arms and gave you a scolding looking.

"Then... you're mad... because..." You trailed off, trying to think what you might have done to him.

"Because you made..." He tried to nudge you in the right direction, but you were still clueless.

"Because I made... a bunch of money on that Tonberry hunt and didn't give you a fair cut?" you guessed, but he just shook his head at you in a disappointed way.

"Because you made me worry myself sick. You took off without a word, we had no way to find you, and all we knew was that you were trying to pick off Spira's most wanted fiends near single-handedly. I thought you had gotten eaten by a monster, or died on some mountain, or were too hurt to call for help. Not to mention you ran off without a healer." You opened your mouth to protest and say that Riku was, in fact, a healer, but he went on before you could, "And before you say it, no. Riku does not count. He's fine at fixing up little things, but what if you had a stigma attack and collapsed again? You know I'm already concerned about you constantly just because of who you are as a person, besides all of the other stuff you've got going on. And Riku has said time and time again that he doesn't have the kind of white magic ability to take care of someone in case of emergency. I just had horror scenarios running through my head all night because you couldn't have been bothered to pack a charger or an extra battery pack for your phone. I might have heart palpitations and a stomach ulcer because of you." He looked genuinely upset with you, and it was frankly a little hard to look him in the eye.

"I'm sorry," you said, but it didn't feel like enough, "You know I don't ever mean to make anyone worry about me on purpose. Riku needed a break, and I was able to help. I can see now that it was reckless and selfish, but at the time it really felt like the right thing to--"

"I know." He stopped you, sighing lightly, "I know you're sorry, and didn't mean to get any of us worked up. And I know the two of you would have most likely been fine without our help, and the whole thing got blown way out of proportion... I didn't call you over to yell at you about this... I just also want you to remember that I have anxiety because of you, and maybe you could keep that thought in the back of your head next time you charge off to do something stupid."

"I'm really sorry. I never meant to scare you, and I know it's not fair how much trouble I cause you all the time. I don't know how to make it up to you, honestly. I could let you take a swing at me, if you want, but that's about all I've got." You joked and shrugged apologetically, really not sure what else you could do for him to make up for everything you put him through.

"I'm sure you'll do something new this week that'll make me want to punch you even more. I'll save my free swing for when that time comes." He shot you a knowing look, though his harsh look eased up significantly as he accepted your apology, "But that's not what I really wanted to talk to you about right now. Here." He held out his hand for you, and a silvery chain hung from between his fingers.

"What's this?" You asked curiously, holding a hand out beneath his and eyed him curiously.

"It's Zack's birthday, right?" He shrugged as he dropped the chain into your hand, revealing the dog tag-type metal plates attached to the chain that had been hidden by his closed fist until now.

"Aw, Roxy, you didn't have to get him anything."

"Sure I did. Besides... I'm really good at giving gifts." He smirked a little, and you gave the tags a closer look. They were authentic SOLDIER dog tags, if the bold silver lettering on the back reading 'SOLDIER' had anything to say about it, and the other side had been engraved to say 'Zack Fair, Hero in Training.'

"Oh my god, this is perfect. Where did you even get this?" You beamed at him.

"There's a SOLDIER recruitment center in Luca. They had a gift shop. For a few gil, you could use their laser cutter to make your own tags." He said it so casually, like, it wasn't even something he had to think about all that hard before he came up with that present. Meanwhile, your first thought had been a sweater.

"This is really great, he's gonna love it," you said, trying to hand it back to him but he didn't put his hand out to take it from you.

"I know he will. I'm a pro when it comes to gift giving," he said smugly, then flushed a little and dropped his gaze from you, "... only... I don't actually know Zack that well, and it might be kinda weird for me to give him something like this. You should do it."

You smiled a little to yourself, thinking you could have figured Roxas would excel at something like gift giving, because he really paid attention to other people and their needs, and he was always so thoughtful.

"You're too sweet. But I can't give him a gift from you. That'd be like... moral plagiarism."

He got a sheepish look and refused to take the tags back again as you offered them to him before going on, "No, you do it. Really. It's too weird coming from me. It's like... you ever meet someone, and you remember their name perfectly, then you see them again later, and they have no idea who you are? But you know them, and suddenly you feel weird and kind of like a stalker?"

"... No? Roxy, what are you talking about? You're being ridiculous."  
He rolled his eyes a little and looked annoyed with you, "Yeah, fair enough... should have known you're not attentive enough to ever be on the stalker side of that equation..."

"Hey," you shot, feeling like he was insulting you somehow even though you didn't fully understand what he was talking about.

"Please, just give it to him for me. Don't tell him it was from me. You can take all the credit. I just bought it on a whim because... well, from listening to you talk about him, this seemed like a good gift for him. I can't exactly go tell him 'hey, I know this is super creepy, but I know you better than you know yourself from listening to ≈≈≈≈≈≈ complain about you, so here, have this gift that encompasses your biggest dreams and aspirations while simultaneously being an inside joke that I am in no way apart of. It's from me, the guy you haven't ever spoken to before in your life. Surprise!'"

"... Okay, yeah... when you put it like that..." You bit the inside of your cheek. "But still, this could be a good opportunity for the two of you to talk. I'd really love it if my best friend and my... Zack... could be friends themselves," you said, pausing slightly as you tried to think of what Zack was to you.

"How about you give him the gift, then I'll just wish him happy birthday later and try to strike up a conversation?" He gave you a pleading look.

"Roxy..."

"Look, either you give it to him and have a nice Dream Team moment, or I end up chickening out and keeping it and have to burn it later to make sure no one ever finds out I've got a necklace with Zack's name on it for myself."

You sighed and rolled your eyes, "Oh, alright already."

"Good. Thank you." He let out a relieved breath, and you shook your head at him.

"I don't get you at all. You're so sweet. It's one of your best qualities. Why are you scared to let anyone see that?"

He scoffed haughtily, "It's okay for you to think I'm sweet. You're a girl. Guys don't think like that. I give that present to Zack, he's gonna be creeped the fuck out and slug me. I don't know if you've noticed, but Zack is big as hell, and I don't want to get punched by him."

"Zack's not like that." You shook your head in firm opposition, but you had already agreed to let Roxas keep out of the gift giving process, and you weren't going to go back on that. You took the chain and put it around your neck for safekeeping until you could get it to Zack, and Roxas seemed instantly more at ease.

"Maybe to you he's not," he grumbled under his breath, and you laughed.

"Well, then I'll just have to say thank you for him." You grinned, quickly swimming over to him and surprising him with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, come on!" He grimaced, rubbing at his cheek with the back of his hand as you squeezed him, then he let his hands fall to your back and finally returned your hug with a contented sigh. "You're a real handful, you know that?" he said gently as you continued to bury your face in his neck and squeeze him.

"You got two hands, what are you complaining for?" You gave him a rib-crushing squeeze, and he coughed and groaned as he accepted his fate and let you get on with your hugging without a fight. Then, suddenly, you stopped and went rigid.

"Is that..." You pulled away from him, squinting as you looked over his shoulder. Roxas turned around to look as well, and saw three figures approaching from the distance.

"Genesis?" he mumbled in confusion as you swam around him to get a better view.

"He actually came!" you said excitedly, turning back to Roxas with a big grin on your face that he was not returning.

"So?"

"Oh, shut up, Roxas." You rolled your eyes and began to swim off towards Genesis and his teammates, Zexion and Angeal. As you got closer to them, you saw Zexion had a tail that looked like inky black octopus tendrils just like his sister's, Angeal had a distinctly large blue tail with markings that could have only been that of a humpback whale, and Genesis had a red tail with a white almost zebra-striped pattern with spiky offshoots like a lionfish.

"I can't believe you guys showed up!" You beamed at Genesis as you swam up to them, and you were so excited to see him after such a long time that you threw your arms around him. He was taken aback by your sudden outburst of affection, but returned your hug all the same with a small chuckle at how excitable you were.

"Why wouldn't we? You invited us, right?" He laughed as he gave you a squeeze in return, then you pulled back just enough that you could see his face.

"Well, yeah, but I just didn't think you'd actually show up for something like Zack's birthday party." You shrugged slightly, your forearms still resting on his shoulders.

"I'm not here for Zack," he said simply, causing your face to heat up as his steely blue eyes met yours. He smiled a little wider at your reaction, and you cleared your throat to try to hide your obvious crush on him.

"Thanks for coming," you said, trying your best to keep a calm smile on your face even though it felt like your cheeks were on fire. His smile widened even more, and you had to look away from him to avoid losing your composure. You looked passed him and caught Angeal and Zexion both looking at you with smug smirks plastered to their faces, so you pushed away from Genesis and swam right up to Zexion and gave him a big hug as well, saying, "All three of you, thanks for coming."

"Uh-huh," Zexion mumbled skeptically as he gave you a few pats on the back before you swam over to Angeal, who held his arms out for you expectantly.

"Anything for the puppy," he said as you hugged him, and you laughed.

"Am I the puppy?" you asked as you pulled away from him.

"Zack is, but you're not far off." Angeal grinned at you, then Genesis stole your attention again as he started laughing at you.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, is your tail what I think it is?"

Meanwhile, Roxas was still floating in the same spot he had been before you left him, and he crossed his arms and scowled as he watched your exchange with the older boys.

"They make a great couple, don't you think?" Xion mused, sneaking up on Roxas completely, though he didn't jump or start like she was expecting him to.

"They certainly are standing next to each other." He shrugged emotionlessly, and she laughed.

"Oh, Roxas. What are we gonna do with you?"

"Leave me alone, I hope," he grumbled.

"Ha, you wish. C'mon, let's go. We're starting the scavenger hunt soon, and you volunteered to hide things."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈ volunteered me."

"So?" She rolled her eyes and laughed, "Hey, ≈≈≈≈≈≈! C'mon. It's time to get to work!"

"Work?" you called over your shoulder, looking annoyed something had distracted your conversation with Genesis, but then you saw she had the bag full of party stuff Selphie brought. None of it could really be used underwater, but you figured you still hide the items in it, like the pack of balloons, the cans of soda, and the plastic wrapped streamers, to make a kind of scavenger hunt in the lost city.

∞

Genesis time!

∞

"You and your friends certainly have interesting ways of entertaining yourselves," Genesis mused, watching you try to tie a bundle of streamers to a long, rusted stick protruding from the top of a tower that was fallen over and half buried in the sand. He decided to help you hide your items for the scavenger hunt, and the two of you had been catching up along the way. He told you stories of his group touring the cities and immersing themselves in the culture and history of Bevelle, and you told him about your fiend hunting adventures taking you all over Spira.

"Well, we don't normally go this big, but yeah, I guess we do. You know what Zack and Gippal are like when they get bored." You shrugged, trying to find a nice balance between hiding the streamers so they would be difficult to see but not actually impossible to find when someone came looking for them.

"Destructive." He nodded, then shot you a curious look, "So, how have you been getting on with them, anyway?"

"Surprisingly okay, for the most part. We argue, and they can be impossible sometimes, but they're my boys. I'm having a lot of fun with them. It's the most fun I've ever had, actually. I love it here. This trip was just what I needed." You finished tying the streamers into a big bow that billowed in the tide, and put your hands on your hips as you gave your work a satisfied nod of approval.

"I can see that. You're different now." He was watching you closely and smiled approvingly at you.

"Am I? I don't feel all that different... you know, besides the tail." You shrugged, glancing over at him and catching the look he was giving you now that you were done fussing over the streamers.

"Yeah, the tail was a bit of a surprise, and so was you asking me to meet you under the sea, but that's not what I meant." He laughed, "It's like you found your place. I don't really know how to describe it, but you're more... yourself now. Like Traverse Town was a puzzle and you were trying to force yourself to fit in its picture, but you've finally realized it's the other way around. Traverse Town, and the people in it, are the ones that need to match up with you. You're not struggling to spread out your attention to everyone equally, or letting whatever was holding you back have any power over you anymore. You're just you now."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ Strife: Fiend Hunter." You laughed, feeling like his statement was sweet and he meant well, but reality wasn't anywhere near that neat and polished.

"'≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ was hilarious.' That's what they'll write about you in the history books." He gave you dry look and shook his head.

"No, I get it." You settled into a more serious tone, "You make it sound prettier than it is, because it's you talking... but, I get what you're saying. I guess you're right. When I moved to Traverse Town, I wanted to start over, and be something I wasn't. Someone normal, and calm, and who didn't fall face first into chaos, but that's not me. It's never been me, and trying to force myself to change was just making me miserable. Especially when the universe was doing everything in its power to stop me being normal from happening. I came here, and I was allowed to just be me, whatever that means. To lean into the chaos and take things one day at a time. I've really learned a lot about myself these past few weeks. I guess you're right, I have changed."

"So... you've been coming out of your cage, and now you're doing just fine?" He smirked, and you shoved him.

"Oh come on, now who's hilarious?" You rolled your eyes and he laughed.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself. I'm happy for you, though. Really. I'd see you around sometimes in school, and you just looked smothered by your own thoughts. I don't see you as much out here, but you look like you're doing well."

"I'm learning to come to terms with things. Geostigma isn't the kind of thing that goes away, and I was letting it rule my life. I don't want that. I felt stuck in Traverse Town. This has been just the change of pace I needed."

Genesis looked slightly stunned, like you had just filled in some missing information he needed to solve the mystery he had been trying to work out in his head for weeks now, but he did his best not to be taken aback by the sudden revelation, "I didn't know. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You didn't know because I wasn't ready to tell you before. I wasn't ready for people to know but it's different now. It's a part of me, but it doesn't control me. I know that now. I'm a slow learner, but I am learning. Who knows, maybe one day I'll have things figured out as well as you do."

"Don't even bother trying to be like me," he said, reaching a hand up to adjust the crooked wreath of flowers the girls put on your head, "You're at your best when you're just being you. Besides, you'd die of boredom if you tried living as Genesis Rhapsodos: Bookworm."

"You're not boring," you said quickly, seeing how he dropped his hand after fixing your crown in an almost sad, defeated kind of way.

"Perhaps not, but I'm less exciting than some," he said, his eyes flicking down to the dog tags floating on the chain around your neck.

"What, Zack?" You followed his gaze to the tags, and caught them with your hand to stop them from floating around during your conversation. "He's a ball of ADHD fueled chaos. Definitely not boring, that's for sure. But I couldn't even begin to compare the two of you. You're just too different."

"It's funny, it seems like he's been in a completely one sided competition with me for his whole life, trying to one up me and outdo me. I never played along because I never saw any point in playing his game, but now it feels like I lost somehow. I'll admit, I'm a bit envious."

"You're jealous of Zack?" You gaped at him, thinking about how telling him his arch-nemesis, the great Genesis Rhapsodos, was jealous of him would actually be the best birthday present anyone could ever give him.

"I am not jealous of Zack. He's a big Adam's apple in a smelly shirt." Genesis rolled his eyes, getting caught up in their petty rivalry for a moment before his composure returned, causing you to laugh, "I'm envious of the fact he gets to spend so much time with you. He gets you everyday, and it took the land converging with the sea for me to get an afternoon with you."

"Aw, well, the phone works both ways, y'know?" You laughed, thinking his sentiment was sweet, but he really wasn't doing anything about it if he did want to spend more time with you.

"Well, you've got me there," he admitted sheepishly, "If I've learned anything from today, it's that taking a chance to see you when it arises is worth suffering Zack and Gippal." He placed his hand over yours and you let go of the dog tags so he could hold your hand.

"Sweet Talker." You rolled your eyes and looked down at your entwined hands to avoid his eyes.

"Guilty." He shrugged, raising his other hand to your cheek and beginning to lean in. You closed your eyes and tilted your head up, waiting for his lips to connect with yours. You could feel the water move around you as he leaned in, and swore you felt the heat of his skin as he got closer to you, but his lips never came.

What did come was the annoying, overbearing voice of your new mommy.

"What the hell is going on here!? Get your hands off my baby!" Gippal shouted, swimming up from out of nowhere and grabbing you by the shoulders from behind and yanking you out of Genesis's grasp.

"Oh great." You sighed heavily.

"Oh great? What do you mean 'oh great'?" He scoffed at you, shaking you aggressively by the shoulders.

"I meant 'Oh! Great. Gippal's here'," you said with mock enthusiasm before deflating and glaring at him.

"That's right. It is great that I'm here," he said in a voice that was still very scolding and parental.

"Quick, release the balloons and start the parade. Gippal's here," Genesis grumbled, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes.

"And just what are you two doing all the way out here all by your lonesome?"

"We're just talking," Genesis insisted and it was Gippal's turn to grumble and scoff.

"Yeah, okay. Just talking. Smooth. Reallll smooth," he drawled sarcastically, then added in a lower tone to you, "Watch yourself, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. He's a smoothie."

"We really were just talking, Gippal. Go away." You groaned, already regretting not making a break for it when you had the chance.

"You can talk at a distance without touching, can't you?" He gave you another quick shake to remind you he still had a good grip on you.

"Well, some people can. Clearly you can't," Genesis gibed, eyeing Gippal's hands on your shoulders and shooting him a challenging look.

"Oh-ho-ho, definitely a smoothie." Gippal tightened his grip on you and glared at him from behind your shoulder even harder.

Genesis looked like he was about to retorte, then a smirk found his face and he turned his eyes to you again.

Gippal gave a confused, "What are you—" before Genesis suddenly swam forward towards you and stole a kiss. His lips left yours as quickly as they came, and Gippal barely had time to process what just happened before Genesis was swimming off in the opposite direction, "Get back here, shithead!" Gippal seethed, chasing after him and using you as a springboard to help propel himself forward.

You had to pinwheel your arms to regain your upright position after Gippal pushed off of you, but you didn't really mind somehow. You felt a bit stunned, to be honest. You could hear Gippal yelling and carrying on as he tried to catch Genesis, but the two quickly rounded a corner of the sunken city and you lost sight of them. It felt like a very bizzare dream, like one moment everything made sense and was going well, then suddenly it got turned on its head.

Why did random bursts of chaos always have to be directed at you?

∞

Sora Scene

∞

"Oh, hey ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈. What are you doing back already?" Sora asked as you swam by, returning to the open area outside the city where everyone had been playing blitz and hanging out. Now, half the group was off exploring again while a few people were still off hiding things for the scavenger hunt.

"Ah, the scavenger hunt is probably going to be a bust anyway. There's no real prize, and we're basically hiding garbage." You shrugged, deciding to settle down onto the rock next to him where he was laying back and relaxing.

"Hey, who doesn't love a nice ocean clean up on their day off?" He laughed, propping up on an elbow so he could be more conversational with you, but you deflated slightly and folded an arm behind your head and stared off towards the surface of the water far above your head.

"Hmm... that is kind of what the scavenger hunt has turned into, isn't it?" You frowned.

"It's alright. Everyone is having fun, so don't worry about it. I mean... just look where we are. This is amazing." He tried to cheer you up, gesturing to the beautiful ocean floor and the sunken city.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Don't really need to do much with a backdrop like that." You agreed, looking at the city and still feeling that stirring sense of wonder at seeing something so old and forgotten in such a foreign world with your own eyes. Then you caught sight of Selphie in the distance hanging something off a fallen tower, ruining any sense of ambiance. "Although, maybe bringing a bunch of party games along to the bottom of the ocean wasn't the brightest idea."

"Zack seems to be enjoying himself, that's what really matters today." Sora shrugged, looking over to where some of the older boys were still playing around with the blitzball in a circle, laughing and clowning around with each other.

"It's Zack; he could find a way to entertain himself in solitary confinement." You chuckled to yourself while watching the boys. He was going to have a good time regardless of what you did. That was just kind of how he was. You shook your head with a smile at the thought before laying your head down on your arm again, closing your eyes and relaxing. You were still feeling pretty tired from the events of the past few days, so it felt really nice to just lay back and rest for a bit.

"Kind of like the way we can always trust you to go falling asleep on us." Sora smirked, and you laughed before shooting him a look.

"You gonna sass me or you gonna join me?"

"Well, if you insist." Sora beamed at you, and you couldn't help but to return his infectious smile. You wiggled over closer to him and rested your head on his tummy, and he sighed contentedly as he began to mindlessly run his fingers through your hair. It was almost too easy to fall asleep in the warm sunlight streaming through the water, listening to Sora's rhythmic breathing and feeling the tide gently rustling through your fins and hair.

It was nearly sunset when you both stirred next, and the world around you had gone from deep blue ocean to a sunset colored paradise. The pinks and yellows of the sky seemed to be reflected in the water all around you, making it feel like you were physically in the sky, living in the sunset rather than just watching it at a distance.

Sora sat up upon realizing how much time must have passed, causing you to start and jolt upright from where you were laying on him.

"What is it?" you asked, looking around and putting a hand over your heart to try to help slow its beating after such a startling wake up call.

"Sorry... it's just... where is everyone? It's so late now, you don't think they left us, right?"

You looked around, more entranced by your surroundings than by the absence of other people. It was beautiful, but Sora was right. No one else was around to be enjoying the sight of the sunset filtered through the ocean. "Huh... where'd they all go?" you mumbled curiously.

"Oh crap... they left us." Sora sighed heavily.

"Nah, come on. Our groups would notice if we were gone. They wouldn't ditch us." You shook your head and gave him a reassuring smile.

"Well, your group might not leave you behind, but mine actively tries to get rid of me sometimes."

You laughed loudly at the thought, and he scowled at you.

"What's so funny?"

"Riku and Roxas are jerks," you said with a shake of your head and a few leftover giggles, "What a bunch of brats. You're too good for them, anyway. Who needs a bunch of grumpy old men like them?"

"Isn't Roxas your best friend?"

You shrugged and nodded, "Well, yeah, but I'm a grumpy old man, too."

"No you're not. You're fun, and you're nice. You're nothing like him."

"I'm not that nice, you've just never done anything to deserve to see the mean streak." You grinned at him, nudging him with your shoulder to get him to stop sulking. He didn't though.

"Do you think you'd like me better if I was meaner?" he blurted out suddenly, catching you off guard.

"What?" You gaped at him.

"You know... you just... seem to get along better with them sometimes. That's all." He rubbed the back of his head awkwardly, like he realized he actually didn't want to have this conversation at all. You could see this, but still didn't want to drop it completely. It was just so odd to see Sora looking so down in the dumps, especially since he seemed like he was having so much fun up until this moment. He looked like he was kicking himself for saying anything, and he turned his back on you slightly so you couldn't see his face as his cheeks began to redden.

"Is everything alright, Sora?" you settled on asking, putting a hand on his shoulder after he turned away from you.

He hung his head and shrugged, "I don't know."

A silence hung between you both, but you were determined to let him have some time to think through what he was trying to say, so you didn't break it.

"I guess... I don't really know what to do. All my life, all that I've ever wanted people to think about me was that I was good, and kind. Growing up in my house, I saw how cruel and unfair life could be, how cruel and unfair people could be. My family is still torn up because of it. But I always thought if I could just be kind enough, then there was a way to undo all that hurt, and put things right. To be so kind it shines off me and erases the bad things, and makes people find hope in others again. When Ven was still living with us, and all the fighting and chaos was going on in our house, there wasn't much I could do. I was small, and had no control over any of it. I couldn't convince my parents of anything, or do anything for Ven in any real capacity... but I could be kind. I always thought it was of some small comfort that at least, whatever happened, I could still be kind."

"That's really beautiful, Sora," you said earnestly, squeezing your hand on his shoulder and encouraging him to turn back to face you, "I don't think the world would be such a cruel and unfair place if there were more people like you in it."

"You say that now, but... part of me still feels like the only way I could be closer to someone like you is if I wasn't so--"

"Hey." You stopped him, "Don't you change for anyone, ever. I'm the one who should try to be more like you. You're the best person I know. I really admire you."

He flushed and avoided your gaze as you looked into his eyes while you said it, determined not to believe the compliment. That is, until suddenly your hand was on his cheek, turning his head so he had to look at you. Your eyes met for a moment before you began to lean in, causing his heart to race and a shiver to run down his spine. Your lips connected with his and he felt like his stomach did a flip. He didn't know how it had happened, but suddenly you were kissing him. It was like a light turned on in his brain, and he realized this was what he thought was missing from his relationship with you. He was so happy he felt like he could fly.

He reached for you, wanting to feel your soft skin, or run his fingers through your hair, but he seemed to miss completely. Like he reached out, but his hand just fell through open space. He opened his eyes and gasped.

Reality came flooding back to him as his eyes shot open, and sunlight drowned out his vision. He was panting hard from the shock, and then he heard you snickering from beside him. He looked up and saw you sitting next to him with a shit eating grin on your face, holding one of the markers you were supposed to go hide for the scavenger hunt.

"Bout time, sleepyhead," you teased him, putting the cap back on the marker you were holding and giving his face a smug look that could only mean one thing.

He didn't care about that at the moment, though. He put a hand over his heart to try and help slow it down after his rude awakening, but as soon as he looked at you it just sped right back up again. He couldn't honestly say if he had ever thought of you in any kind of a romantic way before, but... it had been such a pleasant dream. He could still feel the pressure from where he dreamt your hand had been on his cheek, and his lips felt flushed and warm. He even still had goosebumps on his arms. It had been so real, felt so real... he couldn't look at you and not think about kissing you.

"Oh, this is bad..." he mumbled, clenching his hand over his chest and starting ahead blankly, deep in thought.

"It's not that bad. I'm a pretty good artist, if I do say so myself," you said proudly, admiring your handiwork. The marker didn't work very well under water, but there was a distinct monocle, mustache, and lightning bolt scar visible on his face, and you had been drawing on lipstick when he woke up.

"Hey, what are you two doing over here? You're supposed to be off hiding things, ≈≈≈≈≈≈." Roxas swam over with a grumpy look on his face, which twisted into a poorly hidden smirk as he caught sight of Sora's new ink, "Oh great. So you've been napping while I'm off doing all the work."

"Who said I was napping?" you sassed, then nudged Sora with your elbow lightly, "Sora's the one who was making kissy faces while snoozing."

"Ah-ha-ha... she's making that up," Sora said quickly, but his face went beet red and he suddenly felt very warm.

"Awww, did you have the Moogle Fairy Princess dream again Sor-Sor?" Roxas taunted him over an old crush he'd had on a cartoon character from a show they used to watch as kids, and Sora glared daggers at him.

"I was six, okay? Are you ever gonna let that go?"

"Are you ever gonna let the Moogle Fairy Princess go? You had a doll of her and everything. He used to sleep with it," Roxas said, and Sora looked like he was ready to throw down.

"As opposed to you, who slept with nothing but punk CDs and studded belts all your life?" you shot at him before Sora even had a chance to open his mouth.

He crossed his arms and glared at you, "You know what...?"

"Ugh, alright already. Let's go finish your precious scavenger hunt. Sorry, Sora." You rolled your eyes at him, but ultimately folded under the pressure of his scolding gaze.

"It's not my scavenger hunt. It's for your stupid party."

"My stupid party?"

The two of you began bickering like the old married couple you were, and Sora just watched you go helplessly. At least it seemed like neither of you had noticed his panic or embarrassment, but that only made it worse somehow. Like all of the doubt he expressed in his dream was completely reasonable. The minute you had the chance to run off and bicker with Roxas, you dropped Sora like a rock. He was having a hard time dealing with the fact that his heart kind of stung at the thought.

"Oh this is very bad," he mumbled to himself, putting a hand over his heart again. It was like all these emotions and feelings were hitting him all at once out of nowhere, and he was not prepared to deal with any of it. "Very, very bad."

∞

"You know no one actually cares about this treasure hunt, right?" You sighed at Roxas, exasperated by him already after just a few minutes of swimming together to hide the remaining items you had.

"And yet you signed me up to help hide things. So that's what I'm gonna do, and if I have to do it, so do you."

"God, you're a handful."

"You've got two hands." He threw your words from earlier right back at you, and you had to laugh.

"Look, let's just forget about it and go have some fun. I think I've made us fight enough for one day."

He sighed out any resentment he was feeling and nodded, "Alright. It does seem like a bit of a waste to not be enjoying ourselves down here," he agreed, looking out at the machina city that the two of you were heading towards. It was surreal and beautiful, and neither of you were appreciating it enough while you were bickering.

"Wanna go exploring?" You wiggled your eyebrows at him, seeing that he had a whole new wave of adventure sweep over him.

"Yeah, okay. You're on."

The two of you swam through the sunken city, circling towers and diving deeper into the lost depths than you ever thought possible. The ocean floor fell away, and the sun on the surface became a dark, distant gleam over your shoulders as you plunged deeper, watching the surfaces of the rusted towers become more forgotten and wild looking as the water's claim on the structures become more evident.

"Okay, is it just me or is this place getting creepy as hell?" Roxas mumbled to you as you swam deeper. The playful zooming along and spinning around structures slowly turned into near shoulder-to-shoulder swimming as the atmosphere darkened.

"What? No way," you said, though all signs your body language were giving off screamed otherwise. You were gripping one of his arms and had the other clenched around the necklace hanging from your neck to keep it from floating off your chest in a timid sort of way.

"Oh yeah? Let go of me, then," he said knowingly, though he kept his eyes ahead, scanning for any sign of danger. It was mostly just quiet. Eerily quiet and empty. There weren't really any fish around, either. It was a completely deserted wasteland. It felt like a graveyard, somehow.

"And risk you getting scared and running off? No way. 'Sides... it's not so bad down here. No sharks, no problem, right?"

"Ha, yeah... I guess you're right," he agreed nervously, then suddenly you both gasped as a school of fish shot out of nowhere from behind you. You were completely surrounded for a few moments as hundreds of tiny fish went hurtling past you.

You dropped all pretense of not being afraid, and you both latched onto each other as you stared wildly around you, and then the fish stopped coming as quickly as they came. The school of fish had passed you by, and now you were stuck staring at the quickly disappearing hoard in shock and awe, still hugging Roxas tightly.

"R-Roxas... what do you reckon they are running from?"

"Running from? No... no, they were just... swimming. Just swimming."

"There are no other fish around."

"Because this is a bad area. They're just trying to get through as quickly as they can, because this is a bad area."

"Turn around, Roxas," you said, trying to get him to check if there was anything coming up behind you that you should be running from. There was no way in hell you were gonna look back there yourself.

"No. No, I'm good."

"Roxas. Turn around."

"Nothing back there. No point." He shrugged, but you could swear the water around you felt like it was dropping in temperature significantly.

"Roxas... humor me." You dug your nails into his shoulder feeling shivers going down your spine and your heartbeat kicking up to an uncomfortable speed.

He groaned, then began to stiffly turn his neck so he could look over his shoulder. It was like his limbs were rusty, and he had to turn in slow, jerky intervals until he was finally able to see what was behind the two of you. He relaxed and let out a sigh of relief as he saw there was nothing there in the dark, murky water.

"It's nothing," he said, and you began to relax as well, loosening your grip on him and taking a look for yourself. The darkness was making it hard to see very far, but there were definitely no sharks sneaking up on you. Just sand swirling in the shadows.

"Great! Just like we thought... better go back now, you know, because... they're probably starting to miss us," you said casually, and he nodded quickly.

"Yup. Wouldn't want to keep anyone waiting for us," he agreed, and then the dark shadow that was behind the two of you seemed to intensify, and any trace of the sun high above you vanished.

A massive form began to emerge from the darkness, as a pair of jaws stretched open. You weren't sure what you were looking at for a moment, until it hit you that the giant white things you were seeing in the shadow of the jaws were teeth.

"Whale!" Roxas shouted at you, grabbing you by the shoulders and shaking you even though you were very much aware of what was right in front of you. The water around you was being pulled into the open mouth of the whale, and you were dumbstruck by the situation. Roxas had to start pulling you by the arm to get you swimming, and as soon as your trance broke, you began screaming and swimming in the opposite direction of the whale.

You swam and swam, and didn't dare to look back, but you could hear the low pitched whining sound of the whale getting closer, and felt the pull of the water as it sucked it all in. You fought and fought against the pull, grabbing onto Roxas again and trying to swim together, but the pull was just too strong. Eventually, you stopped moving forward all? together, no matter how hard your kicked against the current, then, with a final melodious whine, the whale's jaws closed in around you, and the two of you were trapped in its mouth.

(Did somebody say... Monstero!!)

Monstero!!)  
∞

The whale didn't eat you outright. You were just trapped in its mouth, swimming for dear life away from its throat any time you felt the pull of the water again as it tried to swallow. It felt like a significant amount of time

"We're gonna die in a whale." Roxas had a glazed over look on his face, like he couldn't believe this was happening but was also somehow at peace with it.

"We are NOT gonna die in a goddamn whale," you snapped, ramming a fist into the wall of teeth you were stuck behind, trying to make it open its mouth so you could swim out of there.

"Oh my god, I'm never going anywhere with you ever again. Your adventures are the worst." He continued griping mindlessly, as he had been for the past few minutes, and you continued hitting the teeth like you had been.

"My adventures are the best. It's not my fault my life just happens to be the place where the universe enjoys taking its shits."

"Gross."

"Gross? Look where you are! We are literally swimming in spit." You glared at him, and he made a face at the thought.

"We need to get out of here."

"You don't say!!"

Every minute that passed in here was another minute this whale was taking you farther out to sea and away from your friends. You had no idea how much longer the transformation spell had left, but you knew as soon as it broke you were dead meat. You wouldn't be able to stay alive in the water in the whale's mouth, and even if you could escape, getting back to shore as a human would be exhausting at best and impossible at worst.

It was hard to tell, but it felt like this whale was swimming fast. If the speed it snuck up on you with was anything to go by, you would be lucky if you were still within a 10-mile radius of where it caught you. The whale opened its mouth every now and again to try and scoop up some more food, but it was all you could do to grab onto the teeth and hold on for dear life so you wouldn't get swallowed up. If you were going to escape, you were gonna have to do something drastic.

"Hey, hold on to me. I have an idea." You finally said, after a few more tense minutes. The whale could open its mouth again any moment now, and your grip strength was getting weaker every time. You weren't going to be able to hold on for much longer, so you decided it was time to act.

"Oh, you are just a living, breathing red flag, you know that?" Roxas complained, but he grabbed you all the same. He hooked one arm around your waist, then let go of the tooth he was holding onto and clutched onto you in a bone-crushing hug. His weight now combined with yours made it almost impossible to hold on as the whale swallowed again, but you would just have to risk it.

"Swim as hard as you can on three."

"What?" His eyes widened, and he stared at you, but you ignored him and turned your gaze up to the roof of the whale's mouth.

"One..."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, what are you doing?"

"Two...."

"Don't you dare let go."

"Three!" You said, and he began to yell as he clenched his eyes shut and began kicking his fins as hard as he possibly could while you let go. There was a moment where you were still, caught between Roxas' forward momentum and the whales backwards draw down its throat, and you had to act fast. You raised a hand and shot blast after blast of magic up at the roof of the whale's mouth, knocking its uvula back tickling its throat violently, causing a visceral reaction from the whale. It's tongue seized up, the teeth gnashed together, and it made this horrible screeching sound that went splitting through your eardrums, and then suddenly you were being drawn upwards. You had been hoping to try to make the whale vomit or at least gag long enough that you could slip out of its mouth, but instead you were being pulled up towards the roof of its mouth. Roxas hugged you close, and you screamed and turned your face into his shoulder as you were squeezed and pushed through the whale's blowhole.

It was not a sensation like any you had ever felt before. You felt like your bones were being crushed into Roxas's, and his were jabbing into you as the two of you were squished together and forced upwards. Then came the suffocating tightness of the hole's narrow canal, along with the slimy and soft texture of the tissue lining it. It was gross and painful and terrifying all at once, and then, suddenly, it was all over. The compression lifted, and you went shooting out into open water so fast you couldn't even see past the rush of water and bubbles that came out with you. The force of the blowhole explosion was so great that you actually left the ocean briefly, shooting about fifteen feet into the air until gravity caught up with you and put a stop to your momentum. There was just a brief pause in your joint screams as you reached the apex of the leap out of the water, then you both held onto each other even tighter and began screaming again as you fell back to the water's surface. The water came with a painful slap, but once you slipped below the surface again, everything began to calm down.

Your screaming stopped, you let go of Roxas, and you could see the faint outline of the whale as it swam off in the distance. Not sure what else to do with all your pent up adrenaline and terror, you turned to Roxas and burst out laughing. He joined you, just so happy to be alive and out of that situation, and you both just laughed and laughed until you had to double over and hold your sides from the pain of all that giggling.

"That was awesome!" he reflected, feeling much more open-minded about the whole situation now that the imminent danger had passed.

You ran a hand through your wild hair and nodded, completely breathless from all the laughing and excitement, "No one is going to believe us."

"You think I'm gonna tell anyone we got shot out of a whale like a giant snot rocket after almost being lunch?" He scoffed.

"I don't think that's quite how blowholes work, but... point taken."

"I'm so glad I saved my free swing at you," he said, taking a free shot at punching you in the arm.

"Hey, I may be the reason why you just got half-eaten by a whale, but I'm also the reason why you weren't fully-eaten," you shot back defensively, though you just sat back and rubbed the sore spot on your arm, knowing you kind of deserved it.

"Yeah, well... now what?" he asked, looking around for anything that seemed familiar. You were miles away from where you had been scooped up by the whale, and the city was long gone. You had no idea where you were, or what direction to take off into to even try to get back.

"That's.... A really good question," you said, looking around as carelessly as he was.

"Any idea how to find north?" he asked you hopefully, and you gave a nervous chuckle and shrugged. Zack normally did that kind of thing. You could have tried to take a guess based on the position of the sun, but the sky was clouded over heavily, and it looked like it might start raining at any second.

"Well... shit," he mumbled.

"Sheeeeeit." You echoed the notion.

∞

Staying put wasn't an option, so you decided to just try swimming in the opposite direction of the whale. A whole argument followed about how the whale could have changed direction any number of times before it spit you out, but it was the best plan either of you could come up with.

It was definitely raining up above the surface of the water because it was so dark and dreary in the ocean now. It wasn't eerie, like it had been in the deepest parts of the sunken city, but it was just bland and dull looking. There really wasn't much of anything to look at besides bluish open water and grayish sand. If anything, it just made it feel like you were swimming for ages without really getting anywhere.

The two of you were pretty quiet since you knew this plan wasn't working very well, but then Roxas spoke up.

"Hey, I think.... I think I see land up ahead," he said, straining his eyes against the varying shades of blue and gray where an emerging blackish, brown shape was starting to get clearer the closer you got to it. "Thank god, we're saved."

"Oh yeah? I wonder where we are," you mused, thinking you would be alright as long as you found some place to wait for the transformation magic to wear off. Hopefully, Zack and Gippal wouldn't get lost too, and as soon as you were human again you could just activate your tracker and they'd come and find you. It wouldn't be long now.

"It certainly feels like we've swum across the whole ocean. Swum? Swam?"

"Swimmed?" You guessed with a shrug.

"Is that right? I can never––oh shit, your tail," he said, causing you to look down.

"Crap baskets." You sighed, seeing your fins had started to get a kind of glow to them that could only mean you were about to transform back soon. It was getting hard to swim, but you had just thought that was because you were getting tired. You looked from your tail to the still very far off land mass ahead and felt a small pang of panic run through you, "We're not gonna make it."

"We will," Roxas said, taking your hand and prompting you to swim faster, "We'll make it."

"Easy for you to say." You sighed, kicking your legs and feeling your strength and speed starting to go with each kick. He had been transformed at least twenty minutes after you, so he still had plenty of time before he needed to panic.

Minutes passed slowly as you struggled to keep going, and then you had to pull hard on Roxas' arm to get him to stop after you started to leave a trail of smoke behind you that was trying to circle around your tail.

You didn't know why you thought it would be a slow transition back into a human, since the transformation to a mermaid happened instantly, but you somehow convinced yourself it would be slow. It wasn't. The transforming smoke caught up with you and all at once you were changed back to normal. You went from a streamlined swimming machine to awkward, flailing human limbs and normal lungs. You held your hands over your mouth and nose as you tried to stop yourself from breathing, and you began to feel suddenly overwhelmed by the crushing pressure of the water that wasn't bothering you in the slightest as a mermaid. Your ears burned and ached like they needed to pop, and you felt like there was so much pressure pounding in on you that you might black out.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈! Just hold on!" He gasped, seeing that you weren't having an easy time with your transition back to a human. You weren't swimming, and looked like you were in serious pain, so he made the executive decision to grab onto you and make a mad dash for the surface. You didn't fight him, but also didn't feel like you could help him swim with you either, so you just hung like dead weight as he pulled you up.

Your head broke the surface, and you sucked in the fresh air like you hadn't taken a breath in years. It was cool and crisp air that stung your aching lungs. You closed your eyes and panted heavily, enjoying the sensation of just being able to relax for a second and breathe again, and Roxas got you in a kind of lifeguard's hold and began to swim with you towards land again. After a few moments of gathering yourself, you tried to help him by kicking your feet, but he was honestly just such a better swimmer with his tail that your wimpy little kicks did next to nothing. Instead, you just tried to relax as best you could and try not to make things any harder on him as you began to look around and take in the strange 'landmass' you had come to.

It wasn't really 'land' in the traditional sense of an island or part of the main continent of Spira. You hadn't somehow managed to wash up on Besaid Island or anything like that. Instead, it was like you had stumbled across a ruin that was hidden here in the middle of the ocean. It was a crumbling old temple, half sunken in the water and barely standing. The stone of the main part of the temple seemed sturdy enough, but everything surrounding it was in pieces, strewn about the water like time had ravaged it. It might have once been a city, but now the only thing left standing in one piece was the temple. This place was lost and forgotten, and there was something foreboding about it, like, you weren't supposed to be here even if it was just by accident. It was a completely different world from Bikanel Island, that was for sure. You knew that right away based on how cold and misty it was. In all your time in the desert, you barely ever saw one cloud, and here the cloud cover was so dense it blocked out the sun. Occasional thunder rolled overhead, and lightning lit up the sky enough times that it was beginning to make you feel uncomfortable being in the water.

Occasional thunder rolled overhead, and lightning lit up the sky enough times that it was beginning to make you feel uncomfortable being in the water  
"What is this place?" you asked mindlessly, staring around at the strange architecture you didn't quite recognize. It was kind of like the other temples of Yevon you had seen back on the main continent, but there was something different about it, like elements of the architecture from the sunken city were mixed in with it, as well as things that were completely foreign. '"It's definitely a temple, but for what? Or who?"

"It looks old and looks completely abandoned. Whatever it was built for, it hasn't been used for it in decades."

"Why do we keep finding the creepiest places possible?"

"Shelter is shelter," Roxas answered with a shrug, like he was perfectly content to just ignore everything strange about this place as long as it meant you had a safe place to rest out of the water while waiting for the others to come and find you. He was starting to get a bit glowy around the tail, so you knew his transformation would be coming soon.

"Is it me? Am I the problem?" you asked dramatically, wondering why this kind of shit always had to happen to you and you wound up in weird places like this.

"I mean... it's not me," he said after giving it a moment of thought, "Everything's always pretty boring around me until you show up."

"I'd say Zack and Gippal are the biggest problem, but then again, they never seem to be the ones stranded in the middle of the ocean."

"Or in the belly of a whale."

"Don't be dramatic. We never wound up in its belly." You scoffed.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈. We got close enough," he said in a scolding tone, letting go of you and giving you a look.

"Well...Gippal wound up in jail. I think I'm at least still better than him." You turned from your back float to look at him and see why he had stopped, when you realized he found a nice little broken bit of rubble sticking out of the water where you could climb out of the water. It looked like it used to be part of the path to the main entrance of the temple, but the rest of the path had crumbled away. You could see it lead to a big circular courtyard in front of the temple that was probably some grand sight in the temple's prime, but now it just looked like an underwater graveyard with towering statues rippling just below the surface of the water.

"This looks like as good a place as any," he said as he helped you clamber your way onto the crumbling platform. The first thing you did was hit the button on your ankle bracelet that would send a distress beacon to Zack and Gippal before falling back on your butt to just rest after so much swimming and excitement. Your legs felt wobbly on dry land again, and you were frankly just fine with chilling out for a moment. Roxas folded his arms up on the side of the platform near you and rested his chin on his forearms, also completely exhausted.

It was only now that you were out of the water and could feel the chill of wind on your wet skin that you realized just how cold it was here. Everything kind of felt the same in the water, but now you were freezing cold. You curled up into a ball to try and stay as warm as possible, and held his hand so you knew he would still be there even if you closed your eyes. As time passed, it started to get darker, which only meant it was getting colder. A dense mist fell over the area, making everything even more miserable.

"Go on, see if you can find a way to get inside. I'll join you when I transform," Roxas said, breaking a long silence that was filled with nothing but chattering teeth.

"I'm not leaving you here," you said definitively, and you cut him off when he opened his mouth to protest, "We stick together when shit gets weird."

"You're gonna get hypothermia."

"So are you."

He sighed and let the subject go, squeezing your hand a little tighter as he felt you start to shake from the cold and willing himself to transform sooner.

"You doing alright?" he finally asked after a few more minutes of waiting.

"Y-yup," you stuttered through chattering teeth. You were laying with your head down, and your eyes closed, trying to imagine you were someplace warm.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈-"

"I'm fine. Just... distract me."

He paused to think for a moment before coming back with, "So... that Tonberry fight was crazy, right?"

"Don't wanna talk about that." You shook your head and clenched your eyes tighter, feeling like that topic was making it feel colder.

"Uhhh... Axel and I... we finally came up with a band name," he said, and that caught your interest.

"Oh yeah? What is it?" you asked, opening your eyes to find him slightly pink in the cheeks and avoiding looking in your general direction, "Roxy?"

"You'll laugh at me," he mumbled sheepishly.

"I could use a laugh," you said, and he sighed like this was painful for him.

"Do you remember.... I told you about that world, Twilight Town, the one that's opposite of Traverse Town? The one that's stuck in an eternal twilight?"

"Stuck at twilight. Twilight Town. Clever." You nodded, remembering a brief conversation about how it sounded hard to nap there with all that sunlight. You were so cold it was hard to think, but imagining all the warm sunlight was some kind of comfort at least.

"Well, I'd really like to see that world someday. I did some digging online, looked at a few pictures and stuff.... And there's this amazing clock tower that overlooks the whole city. It's beautiful, and... well, I just want to see it."

"So, what, you're band is called the TT Wannabes? Oh, hey, that works for Traverse Town too..."

"No, I was showing Axel pictures of the town one day, and told him how I really want to see that clocktower one day, and watch the sunset from up there. He told me he wanted to, too, but that they'd probably never let nobodies like us go up the clocktower. So, it just kinda came to me. The Clocktower Nobodies."

"Hey, that's pretty good," you said, and he seemed very surprised that you hadn't started laughing at him.

"You think so?"

"Yeah, I do. The Clocktower Nobodies... It's perfect." You gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, and he looked taken aback.

"Well... thank you. That means a lot to me."

"I know it does. It's a great start, Roxas. I'm proud of you."

"Now all we need are a few original songs, and maybe some––gah!!" He cried, suddenly becoming engulfed in a cloud of transformation magic. He let go of your hand and slipped beneath the surface of the water briefly before resurfacing with a deep gasp for air. "Oh, lungs... I forgot how nice lungs felt," he said, holding a hand over his heart and trying to collect himself and take in the change.

"Yeah, well, they don't feel so good when they've got pneumonia. Come on, get out of the water," you urged him, taking hold of his upper arm and helping him to make his way onto the platform with you.

"Hey, if I'm normal again, that probably means everyone else is, too, and they can finally come look for us," he said thoughtfully, then added, "That is if Zack and Gippal didn't tear off after you the moment they were transformed back, leaving everyone else at the beach."

"That's what I'm counting on," you said, sitting up to give Roxas some room on the platform, but instead of taking any of the free space available he sat right next to you and put an arm around you. It wasn't much, but you could feel the warmth of his skin and snuggled right into him trying to get more. It was a shame neither of you were fire elementals, but then again, you were too exhausted at this point to really want to have to do any kind of magic right now anyway. The energy you would have to put into making a fire when you were this cold would probably just make you worse off in the long run. For now, it was better to just stay huddled up and try to keep each other warm while you waited for your boys to come find you.

You knew it wouldn't be long now.

After what felt like a lifetime--in which you made a vow to yourself to never again get stuck anywhere cold wearing nothing more than your bathing suit--the headlights of a gummi ship finally cut through the clouds and the mist, revealing the low flying ship you knew belonged to your team.

"Oh, thank god," Roxas mumbled, shaking you a little to make sure you were awake before getting to his feet and waving his arms. It was hard to tell if the boys had spotted you yet, because the ship was still moving very slowly, and the search lights were panning all around the ruins. They were still a good ways away when the lights landed on Roxas, and you felt a sigh of relief escape you. No matter how crazy Gippal was, at least his tech was always reliable. Roxas offered you a hand up, which turned into you taking his hand and him doing all the work to pull you up because you decided to back out of standing up as soon as you felt how cold it was when you untucked from the tight ball you had been sitting in. "You okay?" he asked after giving you a good yank up to your feet, and you doubled over.

"What was that about hypothermia again?" you mumbled miserably, trying to find the strength to stand at full height despite the aching cold that had set in your bones.

"Your lips are only a little blue. I think you're still alive."

"I'm not so sure." You whined, hugging yourself as he waved his arms some more to try to make doubly sure the boys on the ship had seen you both and would hurry it up. You couldn't really blame them for going slow, because navigating the ruins didn't look particularly easy, but you still wished they would floor it.

Finally, the ship approached your little crumbling platform, and the ramp began to lower. They couldn't land the base of the ramp on the platform, or they might have crushed it, so instead they brought it in as close as they could, then Zack popped his head out around the slowly descending ramp and began calling, "A little more... A litttttle more. Easy, steady."

"Zzz-Zack... we're cold." You called out to him through still chattering teeth, and he chuckled.

"'Samatter? Swimsuit not very cozy?"

"Please." You pleaded with him, and he smirked and disappeared inside the ship as the ramp continued to lower. "Gippal? You gonna move this thing closer?" you yelled, hoping he would be able to hear you from all the way inside the ship. They stopped the ship a few feet away still, so you were going to have to try to jump to the ramp.

He walked into the open doorway and dashed any hope you had that he was gonna bring the ship in any closer, "And risk damaging the goods? No way. You can swim."  
"It's freezing!"

"I'm not denting my baby for you."

"It's fine, we can jump it," Roxas said, and Gippal laughed.

"That's the spirit. Chop chop, we've got people waiting on us." He clapped his hands at you, and you and Roxas exchanged a look as if deciding who would go first. He tried to nod for you to go, but you shook your head and urged him forward. If he got across then, he could help you if you needed it, since you knew Gippal would be no help unless he absolutely had to.

Roxas took a flying leap and got a foot on the ramp, then caught the hydraulic lever that lifted and lowered the ramp to help find his balance. He turned and looked at you expectantly, and you sighed and gave your arms a good rub to try and warm yourself up so you could move better. You backed up as far as you could on the platform, then got a running start. Your jump wasn't half bad, and your toes just got on the last few inches of ramp, and Roxas was able to easily grab hold of your hand and stop you from teetering backwards into the water.

"Well, you suckers picked the wrong ship to hitchhike on. I'm a murderer," Gippal teased smugly as you began to climb the ramp into the ship.

"You picked up the wrong hitchhikers. We're only out here because we're also murderers," you said as you walked right past him and his open arms, like he was expecting a 'thank you for rescuing me hug,' and straight over to Zack, who was walking out of the back room with two blankets in his arms.

"Aw, these few hours without your sass have passed so slowly," Gippal said as you and Roxas took the blankets from Zack and began to wrap yourselves as tightly as you could in them.

"How did you even get here? We are like... stupidly far away from where we got in the water." Zack gave you a look of mixed amusement and concern as he tried to get one of his hoodies on you, but you were too determined to stay warm in the blanket to risk opening your blanket burrito long enough to pull the hoodie on.

"It's a long story." You sighed, sinking into one of the bunks in the back of the ship and getting under the blankets on it, too. Roxas took a seat at the foot of the bunk and pulled his knees up into his chest and let out a long, relieved sigh.

"Good thing we've got nothing but time while we cart our too little runaways back home," Gippal said, chucking another blanket off one of the other bunks at you.

"We got eaten by a whale. It dragged us way the fuck out here, and we were stranded." You summed it up, and they both scowled at you.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you always lying?" GIppal crossed his arms.

Zack turned to Roxas, "Alright, what really happened, Roxpox?"

"We got eaten by a whale, really," Roxas said, and then they just looked confused.

"Well, we weren't eaten. Just suck in its mouth for a while." You tried to clarify, but they just ignored you and stared at Roxas.

"Did she put you up to this?" Zack asked him, and you scoffed.

"It's the truth. How else would you explain how we got all the way out here?"

"Are there even whales on this planet?" Zack looked over at Gippal, who rolled his eyes.

"Yes, there are whales. But they don't eat people."

"We weren't eaten!" you interjected.

"Yeah, obviously," Gippal said snidely.

"No, I mean, there was a whale, we were in its mouth, we got shot out of a goddamn blow hole, and then we had to swim for it before we transformed back. We found the temple, and here we are," you said, then it occurred to you to add, "Wherever 'here' is."

"Yeah, where are we? How far did we get away from the sunken city?" Roxas asked.

"Miles," Gippal answered simply.

"We thought you guys got stuck in a current, or a channel, or some other ocean-y type fast moving thing, because there's no way you could have gotten this far out on your own. I was half convinced you two just swam back to the beach to hang out in the shallows, but then it was time to go and you were nowhere to be found. We transformed back to normal and got your signal, and we plugged it into the ship thinking you just got a little lost and would be farther up the beach somewhere... not in the middle of the goddamn ocean."

"I don't even know what this place is. I've never seen it on a map before," Gippal added.

"It's a temple of some sort, but we didn't go inside."

"Good. Yevon shit is creepy. It's best not to mess with it," he said, but Zack didn't look satisfied.

"I am so confused here. We turn our backs on you for one minute and you end up miles away at some mystery temple talking about whales."

"There was a––!" you began, then you bit back on your outburst and sighed, "I'm tired."

Zack and Gippal exchanged a look, then they both relented finally and Gippal began to make for the pilots chair, saying, "Get some rest. The day's not even close to over for us."

"What does he mean by that?" you asked Zack, who stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "Zack, what does he mean by that?" you pressed as he began to leave the room now too.

"You'll see. Nice to have you back. You too, Roxas. Excellent use of the buddy system, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. Couldn't be prouder," he said quickly before disappearing out of the room, leaving you to glare at the spot where you last saw him and sigh heavily.

"They're up to something," you grumbled.

"You can worry about that later. Just try to warm up and rest for now," Roxas said in that gentle kind of way he had that always calmed you down.

"Yeah, alright..." You gave in, laying back and closing your eyes to make the most of this downtime that you could.

(Nothing to see here. You flew back to the desert where everyone was gathered having a beach party after transforming back into humans.)

The beach was lined with Tiki torches and there was a bonfire going that looked especially good to you, since you still felt like there was ice in your bones. Selphie and Yuffie had really knocked their party setup out of the park, and Zack looked so happy and surprised by the party that was waiting for him when you landed. As soon as he stepped out of the ship, Cloud and Tifa rushed him and brought him over to a flimsy looking table where a cake was set up.

Everyone seemed to drop what they were doing and go over so they could sing and watch him blow out the candles, but you b-lined for the fire and slumped down beside it, still wrapped up in your blanket.

(Axel Scene)

"Hey, what are you doing over here all on your lonesome?" Axel asked, dropping down to the sand beside you.

You had been staring into the flames and didn't notice anyone walk up, but you relaxed when you saw it was only Axel. "Hey. What are you doing over here?" you asked as he leaned back on his palms in the sand, closing his eyes as the pleasant heat of the bonfire washed over him.

"Not a big cake person. You?" He shrugged.

"Nah, I'm just freezing my ass off since... well, doesn't matter. You don't like sweets?" You gave him a look, and he laughed.

"I didn't say that. I love sweets, just not cake."

"More of a cookie person?" you guessed, and he shook his head at you.

"Ice cream, actually. Sea Salt is my favorite," he said, and you smiled to yourself.

"You know, that's Roxas' favorite, too," you said, and he gave you a slightly surprised look.

"Oh yeah?" He raised an eyebrow, then scanned the crowd gathered around the cake table for Roxas with a small smirk on his face.

"Yeah. You know, you two are a lot alike. I think it's really great that you're both friends now."

"I blame you for that, you know." He nudged you playfully by knocking his shoulder into you.

"Me? What did I do?" You shot him a curious look, to which he shrugged and gazed back into the fire.

"You just kinda have this way about you."

"And just what exactly does that mean?" You turned to him, giving him a grumpy look like he was trying to insult you in some way, you just couldn't quite figure out how, exactly.

"You're something else, that's all," he answered, looking over at you with a lazy smirk, "So, you and Roxas are best friends, right?"

"Yeah... why?" You eyed him suspiciously, still feeling like he was undermining you in some way.

"Nothing. Forget it." He shook his head, like he was trying to convince himself to drop the subject. He couldn't very well come out and say 'if you think Roxas and I are so alike, and he's your best friend, then do you think you and I could also be close one day?'. It was too awkward.

"You have to tell me now, c'mon. Don't leave me hanging," you pressed, but he just kept looking at you with a small smile and slightly sad eyes. You sighed and shook your bangs out of your eyes in an irritated fashion, realizing he really wasn't going to finish the thought. "You're impossible."

He didn't say anything, and just kept his eyes fixed on you. You tried to make him stop looking at you by staring right back at him, but it backfired horribly as suddenly memories of your conversation with the girls at the seafloor came flooding back into your mind. You felt your face suddenly get very hot as you remembered proclaiming loud and proud things you would never say out loud to him. You had to tear your eyes away from his and look back at the fire, hoping between the sunset and the blazing flames he wouldn't be able to see how red your cheeks had gotten. You thought you played it off pretty well, but you felt extremely aware of his eyes on you and it was making you start to fidget uncomfortably with the fabric of the blanket in your hands.

"Would you stop staring at me?" you said, feeling yourself shrinking into the blanket to try and avoid his gaze.

"You gonna make me?" He got an amused look in his eye, and refused to look away.

You turned to him with a stern look on your face, trying to guilt or intimidate him into looking away, but his smirk just widened. You found yourself having to actively work hard to not let your eyes fall from his eyes to his lips as memories of how good of a kisser he was bubbled up in your mind. In the end, you just got flustered and had to cross your arms and look back at the fire, defeated.

"What's going on with you?" he asked, laughing lightly at your odd behavior.

"Nothing," you snapped, running a hand through your hair.

"Are you... blushing right now?" He leaned in, and frankly you weren't all that surprised he could see it now. Your face was scarlet, and no amount of orange cast from the fire or the sun was going to hide that.

"No! I'm just... hot right now."

"You just said you were cold." He smirked, "Come on, what's gotten into you?"

"I just don't like being stared at." You shrugged.

"I'm not trying to make you uncomfortable. I just like looking at you."

"Why?" you pulled a face, and he laughed like that was the dumbest question he had ever heard.

"Why? ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, you can't be serious." He gave you a look, and you glanced back at him blankly, so he sighed, "Don't make me say it."

"Say what?"

"No, I'm not falling for it."

"Falling for what?" you asked, genuinely not knowing why he would like looking at you, and that seemed to be making him as flustered as you had been moments before.

"Oh my god, you're doing this on purpose."

You laughed, "Doing what?"

"You--" he began, then stopped and shook his head, "This is the most frustrating conversation I've ever had."

"Yeah? Well, back at you." You nudged him with your shoulder, and he shoved you back with his hand playfully. You huffed at him incredulously and gave him a good hard push right back, and he smirked as you knocked him off balance. It was so on. He didn't even need both hands to give you a shove much harder than yours had been, and he watched smugly as you got tangled up in the blanket and began to fall over sideways. It wasn't until the last second that the noticed you had grabbed hold of his shirt, and began to pull him down with you as you fell over.

He had to throw his hands out to catch himself in the sand and avoid crushing you as you both toppled over. You struggled to free yourself from the blankets, and ended up stuck on your back all twisted up and pinned under him. You realized he was on top of you, looking down at you with this intense kind of eye contact that made it impossible to look away. You stopped struggling with the blanket and felt your cheeks flare up bright red again as his eye line fell to your lips.

"Axel..." you mumbled, seeing that he seemed to be frozen in place.

"I know... I won't do anything you don't want me to do," he said in a steady voice, though it looked like it was taking every ounce of willpower he had not to kiss you right then and there.

You looked him dead in the eye and suddenly you didn't feel flustered anymore. You felt sure of yourself, and like you knew exactly what you wanted for once.

"Kiss me," you said, and as soon as the words left your lips it was like the levy he had been holding himself back with burst. He closed the gap between the two of you and swept you into a passionate kiss before it even really registered to you what you had said. He snared your hands with his and pinned them on either side of your head and kissed you with a kind of ferocity that belied how gentle and soft he was still being with you. You lost track of all your sense except the feeling of his lips on yours, and the heat of his body against yours.

Then, a crescendoing chorus of "Happy Birthday to You!" that ended in a big applause break cut through the air and made you both freeze as you remembered where you were and who you were with.

Axel pulled away and sat up on his knees, and you rolled onto your side so you could see around the bonfire and over to the table where everyone was gathered. Zack had just blown out the candles, and they were cutting the cake now. People would be getting slices of cake and wandering over to sit by the fire any second now, so you scrambled into a seated position and tried to untangle yourself from the blanket again as Axel ran a hand through his hair to try and straighten himself out.

"Axel, I..." you began, feeling like maybe that kiss was something you should talk about, but he stopped you.

"It's alright. Don't worry about it. No strings attached, right?" he said, and you wanted to reply, but Demyx had just waltzed over with a plate of cake in his hand and a huge smile plastered to his face.

"It's cheesecake. My favorite," he announced as he sat down next to Axel.

"Cheesecake? Well, that changes everything. You want a piece, ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Axel asked, getting to his feet.

"Uh, yeah, sure..." you said, still feeling a little dazed.

"Be right back," he said, and that was the end of that.

(Literally. End scene!)

Once everyone had eaten their cake, and it looked like things were finally settling down for the evening, Zack and Gippal came walking up to you with a pair of matching grins that you knew could only mean one thing.

"So, you ready to go?" Gippal asked, picking up the empty cake plate beside you.

"Go? Go where?" You looked between the two of them as Gippal threw away your plate and Zack held out a hand for you.

"Spoilers," Zack smirked, and you sighed as you took his hand and let him pull you to your feet.

"Oh, that's right. You guys had your own little surprise planned for tonight. Is that what this is?" you asked as you began to walk back towards your ship with them.

"You told her?" Gippal smacked Zack upside the back of his head.

"I'm sorry, it slipped out!" he protested, rubbing his head and giving Gippal a guilty look.

"He just told me there was a surprise, he didn't say anything about what it was or where we're going. Relax." You rolled your eyes, knowing how much Gippal loved playing games.

"That's because I didn't tell him that info either." Gippal shook his head at Zack, who shrugged sheepishly as he led the way into the ship.

"What? I'm an honest guy. That's normally a good thing." Zack complained as he fell into his co-pilots chair.

"Zack's a good boy who always eats his vegetables." Gippal mocked him, beginning to prep the ship for take off while you made for the back room to drop your blanket and change into some more appropriate traveling clothes in case they were taking you to a city or something.

"Don't make fun of him. You're the one who needs an attitude adjustment," you called back to them as you began changing, feeling the ship lurch slightly as it took off from the uneven sand.

"I haven't had any complaints," Gippal replied, and you laughed.

"Everyone who has ever met you has complained."

"It's true, you do have a habit of...." Zack paused, trying to find the right words.

"Being a dick." You finished for him, returning to the main room and plopping down into your chair on the left of the main control panel.

"Hey, watch it. Or I'm leaving you behind," he warned, though truth be told he didn't seem terribly upset by your attack of his character.

"Not like I know where we're going, anyway," you mumbled boredly, resting your chin on your palm and looking out the front window, trying to discern where you could be headed based off the direction the ship was going. It was all ocean below you, so there was nothing you could do but wait until the ship started to fly over mainland Spira again.

"Don't worry, it'll be worth it," Zack said, and you shot him a look.

"You don't even know where we're going."

"I have every confidence in Gippal."

"At least one of us does," you mumbled under your breath, then distracted yourself by finding the bag with your phone in it that the boys moved into the ship for you earlier. You had a few messages from Cloud, who was scolding you for getting lost from the rest of the group, Sora, who was worried you and Roxas were in trouble, and Aqua, who said she just wanted to let you know she was sorry, but she needed Ven's help that afternoon, and he wouldn't be able to attend the party. Well, that explained that mystery, anyway. Didn't make you feel any better, but at least you knew he wasn't just blowing you off. Aqua wouldn't have kept him if it wasn't important... right?

"Chin up, buttercup. It'll be worth it," Gippal said, seeing that you looked kind of down all of a sudden.

"Yeah, yeah... I trust you," you said, slumping down in your chair and closing your eyes. It would take at least thirty minutes to get back to the main continent, so you decided to get some rest in before they dragged you into another crazy scheme of theirs.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈," Zack was shaking you awake shortly after you fell asleep, and you woke up to see the sunset drenched landscape of the Calm Lands.

"Whoa, what are we doing here?" you asked, briefly taken aback by the glowing, golden fields sprawling before you outside the window.

"Nothing here," Gippal answered, still speeding the ship along quickly with no sign of slowing down.

"So, where then? Gagazet?" you asked, thinking that was the only place left in Spira north of the Calm Lands.

"You'll see," was all he said, though a big smirk played on his lips as he kept his eyes fixed ahead.

"Come on, let's go watch from the deck," Zack said, and you decided you had nothing better to do, so you got to your feet and followed Zack over to the little built in ladder that led to a submarine type hatch on the ceiling of the ship. Zack opened the hatch, then helped you climb up onto the small, railed observation deck.

The air was cool and it smelled like the wild flowers that grew all over the Calm Lands, and you couldn't help but feel better about where ever it was they were going after seeing how beautiful it was out tonight.

"Are we camping on the mountain?" you asked Zack, still trying to figure out what the plan was.

"No idea. Gippal said he had it covered." Zack shrugged, sealing the hatch and walking over to the railing and leaning on it so he could gaze out at the view in a more relaxed fashion.

"Hmm... well, the mountain range is the end of the map, as far as I can tell, so we must be headed there."

"Maybe we are, but you should loosen up a bit. Who cares where we're going, as long as we're all together. That's all I need to be happy."

"Yeah, well, running makes you happy, so your sense of what's a good time is a little warped."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈." He gave you a look and you sighed and smiled back at him.

"Alright. No more complaining," you promised, deciding to just enjoy the feeling of the wind tossing your hair. You felt cold metal rustle against your chest as you leaned your elbows on the railing and hunched forward, and your eyes widened a little as you remembered something, "Oh! Hey, I almost forgot," you said, pulling the chain around your neck to get the dog tags to come out from under your shirt.

"Oh, no. You didn't get me another necklace again, did you? Because I'm still trying to figure out what to do with this one." He shot at you, pulling at the ugly, rusted chunk of metal on a chain that was around his neck. It was the old Al Bhed piece of jewelry you had found in the sunken city.

"You're still wearing that?" You laughed, looking at him like he was crazy.

"Of course I'm still wearing it, you gave it to me." He retorted like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"It was a joke, you don't have to keep it," you said, but he clenched a hand over it.

"Sure I do. It's special to me now."

"Why?"

"It's the first gift you've ever given me. It's sentimental," he said, and you laughed even harder.

"For dignity's sake, trade me." You smiled at him, taking the dog tags off your neck and holding it out for him.

"I'm keeping this," he said defensively, clasping one hand around it like he was afraid you were going to take it away from him, and reaching for the tags with his other.

"Happy birthday, Zack," you said, watching closely as he took the tags and began to turn them over in his hands and read the inscriptions. A bright, shining smile broke out on his face as he read, and he looked up from the tags without warning and pulled you into a tight hug.

"You're the best." He beamed as he squeezed you tight.

"I didn't even tell you the best part. Genesis told me today that he saw all the fun adventuring we do, and admitted he was kind of jealous of you," you said, returning his hug and trying to match his bone-crushing level of squeezing.

"No he didn't... did he?" Zack asked excitedly, pulling back just enough that he could check your facial expressions and see if you were lying or not.

"Those were the exact words out of his mouth, I swear." You nodded, and he laughed and began to hug you so enthusiastically that your feet lifted off the ground and he began to spin around with you.

"Best birthday ever, hands down."

"Well, hold your chocobos, Gippal hasn't gotten to show you his surprise yet."

"You're right. Man, this is just the best day. It keeps getting better and better."

You had been about to say Gippal's surprise was probably going to turn the good day on its head and ruin everything, but after seeing how happy he was as he let go of you and returned to gazing out at the changing landscape before you, you just decided to keep your mouth shut. You stood shoulder to shoulder with him, watching in content silence as the ship began to climb in altitude as you neared Mt. Gagazet.

A few more minutes of flying, and the ship landed at the summit of one of the tallest peaks on the mountain. You and Zack had to go back inside as the ship got higher up the mountain and the air got colder and colder, until it was finally unbearable standing out there in the wind. Gippal took the ship down for landing, and insisted the two of you put on makeshift blindfolds he made out of a long sleeve shirt of yours and one of Zack's hoodies. He tied the sleeves over your eyes, and left the shirt to hang and cover the rest of your face just to make sure that neither of you could see anything, promising that it would be worth it. You just had to take his word for it, and hold on to his shoulder as he began to lead the two of you down the ramp and onto the mountain.

You were guessing he was maybe taking you to the hot spring, or maybe there was a really nice view of the sunset and stars up ahead, but you really weren't sure what to expect.

He lead you both down a path for a moment, then stopped you and said, "Alright, now nobody take any steps forward, okay?"

"Alright," Zack said, and you could feel him bouncing excitedly from his heels to the balls of his feet as the anticipation started to build.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Gippal pressed, trying to make sure you understood.

"You have us standing on the edge of a cliff, don't you?" You sighed, and the sing-songy "eh" he replied to you with was not encouraging.

"Take a step forward, find out," Zack said, and you could tell by his tone that he was smirking.

"Uh... maybe... don't do that," Gippal mumbled.

"See? Called it. We're about to die," you said, and Gippal huffed at you both from behind.

"Are you two ready yet? Take the blindfolds off," he said, and you grinned at his irritation as you reached for the knot of sleeves tied on the back of your head. "Count of three, one, two--"

"Whoa..." You interrupted his countdown, having pulled the blindfold off before he even finished saying 'one.'

You were a few feet from the edge of a cliffside overlooking a massive ruined machina city  
You were a few feet from the edge of a cliffside overlooking a massive ruined machina city. It looked like the sunken city you saw under the sea, but was much bigger and something about it was just captivating. It was beautiful, especially with the fading sunset casting an orange and pink glow over the toppled towers, but it also looked like it had been destroyed by something horrible at the same time. Pyreflies drifted over the rubble and made it look like there was an iridescent mist hanging over the place. Clearly something horrible happened to this place, but it was so serene and picturesque that you couldn't tear your eyes away.

"What is this place?" Zack asked, in a tone that showed he was feeling the same sense of confusion and wonder that you were at what you were seeing.

"Welcome to Zanarkand," Gippal said, putting a hand on your shoulder and the other on Zack's.

"Zanarkand..." you repeated, still taking it all in and trying to wrap your head around the enchanted yet haunting feeling the city gave you. You had heard about the old city in class, but never thought you would actually get to see it. A city that was left forgotten and untouched for a thousand years.

"What are we doing here?" Zack asked, looking back at Gippal excitedly.

"We're camping here tonight," Gippal answered, and you and Zack exchanged a look and a shrug as Gippal ran back into the ship and returned a moment later with his big camping backpack and a picnic basket.

"Aren't we a little far away? Why'd we land here?" you asked after walking for a few minutes down a steep, winding path down Gagazet.

"There's too much rubble to land anything in the actual city. So, call this the hiking portion of the evening. Just keep walking, it'll be worth it," Gippal answered with a cocky smile.

"Hiking, a picnic, and camping out under the stars... this is awesome. Seriously, this has been the best birthday ever." Zack beamed at you both.

"It gets even better than that," Gippal said, getting a mischievous look on his face, "Zanarkand is said to be one of the most haunted places in all of Spira. We're having ourselves a ghost adventure, too."

You raised an eyebrow at him, wondering why in the world he thought that was a good thing, when you saw Zack was actually about to squeal in excitement. You kept your skepticism to yourself and just smiled softly at Zack, seeing how happy this was making him. You didn't know he had any kind of interest in the paranormal, but he certainly seemed excited right now, so maybe Gippal knew something you didn't.

The closer you walked to the city, the more surreal it began to feel. It was strikingly quiet, making you realize you were literally the only people here in the middle of a once bustling city. It was humbling and gave you a strange sense of reverence for what you were seeing.

"How did anyone ever let this city fall?" Zack mused, stopping and spinning around to take in the full 360° view of the ruins you stumbled into.

"The way I heard it, it fell in a single night. No one had time to do anything about it, and by the time outside help arrived it was too late. Everyone was gone, and all that remains are the decaying bones of the once great city," Gippal explained, and you noticed that even his tone was starting to reflect the sense of wonder this place aroused.

"Hmm... that's kinda creepy," you said, and Zack looked absolutely giddy.

"I know! Isn't it great?" he gushed with a smile plastered to his face.

"Yeah," you nodded, then added under your breath, "whatever makes you happy."

"Hey, check it out!" Zack exclaimed, seeing a hill that overlooked the outskirts of the city, "You can see the old Blitz stadium!" he said as he climbed the small hill enthusiastically then stood at the top, admiring the view.

Gippal dropped his pack and the basket, and you decided this was as good a place as any to start setting up camp. You got a fire going as Gippal began to set up dinner, and then the three of you sat together and watched as night fell around you. The stars came out and cast the world around you in a new light, making the ruins glow and reflect the rainbow of colors the pyreflies were giving off as they drifted through the air. Looking out at the ruined city was second only to looking up at the brilliant night's sky above, where you could see every star and far off galaxies of light and color.

As it got darker, however, you began to hear the sounds of fiends. Scratching, rustling, snarling, and howling... they were everywhere, and they were closer than you really felt comfortable with.

The fire began to die around midnight and Gippal had only brought the one kit of kindling, so once it went out that was it and you were stuck in the dark. The star light suddenly didn't feel so bright anymore as your eyes strained to see the fiends making the noises you kept hearing.

"So, this place is super goddamn creepy, right? it's not just me?" you finally asked after what must have been an hour of silence. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts, trying to see and hear what was going on in the darkness.

"Oh yeah, and not in the cool 'ghosts' kind of way either. In the 'we might actually be in danger here' way," Gippal said, looking around uncomfortably as the sound of rubble shifting echoed all around you.

"Any idea what kind of fiends live here?" Zack asked him hopefully, but GIppal just gave a very nonreassuring shrug.

"As far as I know, there shouldn't be any fiends here. No sightings have ever been reported."

"You don't think that has anything to do with the fact that no one lives here to have done any reporting, right?" you asked, shooting him a nervous look.

"Uhhhh... you might have a good point there, ≈≈≈≈≈≈," he said, giving his cheek a sheepish scratch as you began to glare at him.

"Fiends... allowed to roam wild and free, undisturbed for a thousand years. They're made from suffering, aren't they? How much suffering do you think they've gone through, wandering in this lonely place for so long with nothing to ever relieve that pain?" Zack pondered, and you began to feel shivers going down your spine at the thought.

You turned to look at the boys, pleading with them to go back to the ship and get a hotel room for the night instead, but before you could say anything Gippal sat up.

"I have to pee," he said, getting to his feet and walking a few feet away with his back to you.

"Aw, gross. Do it away from camp, you filthy animal," you complained, and he turned around and gave you a frustrated look.

"You want me to wander off into the darkness on my own? We have no idea what's out there."

"Take a flashlight and get out of here, you're not pissing in front of me." You glared at him and threw him the small emergency flashlight from the camping set, and he huffed in an annoyed fashion.

"Fine. Zack, you wanna come get killed with me, or do you guys wanna get killed looking for me? Either way, we're all dead."

"Go on, drama queen. Scream if something starts trying to murder you." Zack laughed, though it was hollow laughter that did a poor job of hiding his nerves. Gippal sighed and flicked on the flashlight, then disappeared around a ruin.

It was a tense couple of minutes of silence until he got back, but he looked fine. A little shaken, maybe, but fine.

"Everything alright?" Zack asked as Gippal walked up and fell onto his butt in the same spot he had been sitting all night.

"I feel like I'm going crazy out here." He sighed, running a hand through his hair and pulling a nervous face as he laid down on his back and looked up at the stars again.

"Why? Something happen?" you asked, and he shook his head.  
"I just... I could have sworn I saw a lady out there. There was this figure out in the distance, with this long silvery hair. At least, that's what I thought I saw. I tried to get closer, and suddenly got the feeling like I was looking at a dude... so I rubbed my eyes, trying to make sure I wasn't going crazy, and when I opened them again she was gone. Or he was gone."

"Ha, yeah, okay." Zack laughed, brushing him off, but something jolted in you as he told his story.

"Silver hair, huh? How long would you say it was? Like, shoulder length? To his butt?"

"I don't know. I didn't get the best look. I thought it was a chick at first, so...long. Like, maybe...kn--"

"Knee-length," you finished, feeling like that settled it. You jumped up to your feet and began to take off in the direction Gippal had come from. You had met a man with long silvery hair before, and it did not end well for you the first time. You didn't know why you felt the need to go see for yourself if the man was really here, if he was really back, but you just did. Your gut feeling was that you needed to see him again, and get to the bottom of who he was and what he wanted from you.

"Wh--≈≈≈≈≈≈! Where are you going?" Zack called after you, also getting to his feet and following behind you.

"Hey! Guys, what the hell?" Gippal whined, seeing you both rushing away. He had no choice but to get to his feet and chase after you both.

"There!" You gasped, definitely catching a glimpse of silver hair in the distance before the man turned a corner and disappeared from sight.

You charged deeper and deeper into the ruined city, running at full speed trying desperately to catch up with the strange man. You didn't know what you would do when you caught up with him, but something about this really didn't sit well with you. What was he doing here? Was he following you? Did he even know you were here?

You were so lost in thought that you were barely taking in your surroundings anymore. You slipped down a pile of rubble after stepping on a loose rock, and landed hard on your hands and knees.

"Are you alright?" Zack asked, skidding down the rubble to your side and trying to help you up, but you tore out of his grasp and kept running, "Hey! ≈≈≈≈≈≈!" he called after you helplessly, and Gippal slid down next to him just as Zack raced off after you again.

"Oh come on!" Gippal complained, realizing he had been left behind again, "We are just sprinting to our deaths at record speed!"

"We have to catch him, c'mon!" you called back to them, thinking they at least deserved some kind of explanation.

"Why? ≈≈≈≈≈≈, what's going on?" Zack asked, finally catching up to you and grabbing you by the arm to stop you.

"You don't understand, I need to find him," you said, and Zack just stared at you blankly with his mouth hanging open like he was at a loss for words.

"Who is he? Do you know him?" Zack was desperate for an explanation that made any kind of sense.

"There he is!" You broke free from Zack's grasp and took off for the old Blitz stadium, seeing the man disappear inside.

"What the hell is going on?" Gippal fussed, sprinting to catch up with the two of you.

"That guy--I've met him before! He's after Lulu," you said, realizing the best way to get them moving and keep them from trying to slow them you down was to just do your best to explain the situation.

"What?" Gippal gaped at you like you were crazy.

"What do you mean he's after auntie Lu?" Zack asked, suddenly looking a lot more alert and willing to chase after this guy with you now.

"He showed up at our training camp. He stole one of Lulu's journals from me, and left a note that can only mean bad news."

"A journal? What journal?" Zack seemed very confused, but like he was on your side now at least.

"I'll show you later. Just come on!" you said, before turning your full attention to running towards the stadium.

You stopped once you got to the entrance, marveling at how big the structure actually was briefly before looking for a way to get inside. The main doors had crumbled and fallen, creating a giant rubble pile that was blocking the entrance, but you had seen the man at the top of the pile so you figured that must be the best way in and started climbing.

"Would someone please tell me what the fuck is happening?"

"Adventure. Isn't that why we came here?" Zack said to him, and even though Gippal scoffed in annoyance he at least seemed to pick up the pace and started to climb now, too.

Once you were inside the stadium you began to turn in slow circles, looking around for any sign of the man.

"I don't see him. Do you?" you asked the boys, but they were both scanning around aimlessly too.

"No. It's like he disappeared." Zack grit his teeth in frustration as you pressed on deeper into the stadium. You looked and looked, but there was just no trace of the stranger anywhere.

"Well I, for one, am glad he's gone. If it had been a girl, then maybe--" Gippal began, but you shushed him as you heard a scratching noise nearby.

"Shhh!"

"Oh, you did not just shush--"

"SHHH!" You and Zack both snapped at him, hearing the sound definitely getting closer.

The three of you stood there, motionless, all facing a different direction and listening closely to the silence that now filled the massive room as your eyes scanned wildly for any sign of movement.

"Whatever that was, I think it's gone now, so--"

Zack began, but his words were cut off by a piercing screech. You had to clamp your hands over your ears, feeling like the force of the scream was going to burst your eardrums. The three of you huddled together, all holding your ears, when suddenly a huge pillar of rock fell from the ceiling almost directly above you.

"Move!" Gippal shouted, being the first one to see where the cracking sound had come from and noticing the falling bit of ceiling.

You sprinted out of the way, and just barely made it behind cover before the chunk of the ceiling hit the ground where the three of you had been standing. Only.. .something about it seemed wrong. Like it was the wrong material to have come from the ceiling. It was regular gray rock, not the bluish marble that the rest of the stadium was made of, and it didn't break like you thought something so old and fragile would after falling from such a height.

"Holy shit!" Gippal yelled after peeking up from his spot of cover. He found cover opposite of you, about twenty feet away and on the other side of the rock. Clearly he saw something you didn't, and as you heard that ear-splitting screech again, you suspected you knew what it was.

It wasn't a rock at all. It was some kind of ancient fiend that had been laying dormant here, and you had woken it up.

"Oh shit..." Zack mumbled, and you had to concur as you heard the scraping sound of long, jagged nails on the marble floor, and a massive skeletal claw extended from the rock and began to turn it around to face you slowly.

Shit was about to hit the fan.

∞

The fiend was definitely stronger than any you had ever encountered. The majority of its body was encased in centuries old stone, making it impossible to land any hits directly on it. It was like a living fossil, with claws and teeth and a terrible aura around it. It's enormous and boney claw was about the only thing besides its head that wasn't petrified in the rock wall surrounding it, and it was using the claw to drag its way closer to you. It was surprisingly fast, and before you had thought up any kind of plan of attack it was close enough to swipe that nasty looking hand at you. There were five long talons sticking out of its fingers that were uncomfortable shades of rotten greens and yellows, and you suspected being touched by one of them might poison you. It was an ancient fiend, after all, and had been crawling around in the mess of ruined rubble for ages now. Who could say what had been festering under its putrid skin for all these years? You and Zack dodged the claw by running back several yards, since it couldn't attack and move at the same time with just the one free claw.

"How do we fight that thing?" Zack asked, wondering how he was supposed to get close with all the stone and that giant claw in the way.

"Same way we fight everything else, I guess," you said, holding out a hand striking down at the fiend with a lashing of lightning to see what kind of damage your magic could do to it. The rock seemed to absorb a good bit of the blow, but the fiend must have felt something because it roared out a searing scream at you in retaliation. You winced and covered your ears, and didn't notice until it was too late that it wasn't just yelling this time. The bones of its fingers moved in a menacing and calculated way, like it was casting some kind of spell.

It was cursing you. You didn't hear any words or anything other than shrill shrieking, but a sinister black cloud began to form all around you. There was no way to dodge it, and nowhere to run. You threw up a protective barrier, but the sinister cloud just slipped right through it and descended on you, filling your lungs and blinding your eyes with its poisoned smoke. It was like the barrier wasn't even there. The cloud enveloped you completely then dispersed as quick as it came, and you were left blind, poisoned, and silenced, like even though the cloud had left it was still affecting you. A blur set over your vision that stung and made your eyes water uncontrollably, and thick smog filled your throat and left you unable to speak. That coupled with the sick feeling in the pit of your stomach you knew all too well to be fiend poison left you feeling like you fell into the world's deepest shithole, and this fight had only just begun.

"I've got you, don't worry!" Zack said, and you felt his arms come around your middle as he began to drag you to safety. "Gippal! Coverfire!" He called out as he pushed you down and your back hit a wall, signifying he found some kind of cover for you to hide behind while he tried to restore your sight and speech, "Come on... fucking... esuna, or whatever." He mumbled to himself as he held a hand on either side of your face. You could feel magic flowing from his hands, but it was clearing your senses at an almost painfully slow rate. You could still hear the sounds of battle behind you, where Gippal was firing rapid shots that were making sounds like the bullets were just getting stuck in the rock and not actually landing on the fiend. There was another shriek and Gippal swore as you assumed the same curse was cast over him for hitting the fiend.

"Shit!" Zack said through clenched teeth as he pressed his hands into your face harder.

"-kay. I'm o... kay." Your voice was cracking and kept cutting out but it was back, or at least it was back enough that using magic wouldn't be a problem, and your vision began to clear enough that you could only really see shapes and colors through the thick thick haze that still kept everything out of focus. It wasn't ideal by any means, but you were functional again.

"You sure, I could do more, if you--!" There was a large crash and he covered your head with his arm and shielded you as debris and dirt fell from the sky on top of you. "Gippal? You alive?" he called out as he began to look up and peek around the rubble to try and find him, though he still kept you pinned down to the wall until he was sure it was safe.

"Yeah. That bitch might not be anymore though," Gippal called back through heavy coughs.

"That was you?"

"Yup. Silence grenade. That'll stop the fucker from counterattacking. We need to attack now, before it gets its voice back. ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, If we're gonna survive this I'm gonna need you to use some of that repressed rage of yours!" Gippal said, and Zack pulled you to your feet and pointed you at the fiend before running out to join Gippal. Your vision was still unfocused and hazy as shit, but you had an outline of the fiend in your field of vision and that was good enough. Gippal let loose an arsenal of grenades and bullets while you shot spell after spell, and Zack hung back in case either of you needed help. He was a close range fighter and your only hope for healing, so he knew it was smarter to stay away from the fiend and just keep an eye on the two of you while you did all the damage. He kept himself at a fairly equal distance between you and Gippal so he wouldn't have any trouble getting to either of you when the fiend began retaliating. It tried slashing its claws at you, but couldn't get through your barrier. Then Gippal shot at it and it turned its attention on him, digging its claw into the ground to turn and face him, nearly tipping over onto itself as it rounded on him and opened its mouth to scream again.

"Voice is back!" Gippal yelled in a sheepish tone as he tried to run to Zack.

"No shit!" Zack snapped, running to him as well.

"Guys! Look out!" you cried, seeing that it wasn't just screaming at them. It was casting some kind of petrification spell, and there wasn't anything you could do to stop it. The fiend's magic went right through your barriers, so all you could do was try to cast spells to kill it while Zack and Gippal ran for cover as a shower of putrid, stony breath that turned the metal pipes and other debris on the ground to solid rock. Gippal grunted out in pain, but you couldn't see what was happening.

"Gippal?" You called out, but no one answered you, "Gippal!?"

You began to run over to where they were, but Zack yelled, "Don't! Stay where you are!"

"Is he okay?" you asked, rooting to the spot on his command, but still looking intently at the dying cloud of stone breath. They were hidden behind something, but you saw clearly that Gippal's left leg and arm didn't quite make it behind the concrete cover in time and had hardened into cold gray stone. It was spreading, like he would become totally encased in stone if it wasn't stopped, but luckily Zack was right there with him and was pouring the contents of a Remedy vial on the affected areas right away. The spreading stopped, but it was still taking a while to reverse the damage. You tried to buy them time, but it had its voice back so there wasn't much you could do. If you hit it with magic or tried any kind of physical attack, it would just counter with that curse and take you out of commision again.

"Please turn my leg back to normal... I kinda need it to flee from you." Gippal tried to reason with the fiend as he clutched at his solid rock shin.

"Got any more silence grenades?" you asked, thinking the only way you were going to get anywhere was to take away its ability to spell cast.

"Yeah. Come and get 'em." GIppal strained, reaching for one of the little Al Bhed pods that were on his belt. He pushed a button to make it expand, then tossed it off to you as you ran by, saying,"Three....two....one... toss!"

You chucked it as soon as he said to, trusting his word on it since you didn't understand how they worked and didn't want to find out by accidentally blowing yourself up. Your vision was still fuzzy, but you could see clearly enough that the grenade hit the fiend full force. However, you couldn't see well enough to avoid the old copper pipe sticking out of the ground in front of you. Your foot caught on it, then your shin split open against its jagged edges as you fell. You hit the ground with a thud and groaned as you scraped your knees, palms, and chin on the way down.

"Did you hit it?" Gippal asked, and you grit your teeth as you pushed yourself up.

"Yeah, I hit it," you called back, wiping the blood dripping from your chin as you sat up. Your shin hurt like a bitch, and you didn't even need proper vision to see that it was either going to need stitches or a healer more skilled than Zack to patch up. You had enough 'fun' traipsing around the ruins of Zanarkand for one lifetime, you decided, as you raised a hand up to try and kill the fiend once and for all.

"Okay, good. But be careful, it doesn't always--" Gippal was saying, but you weren't listening. You put as much energy as you felt you could afford into the blow as you let loose a killer charge of electricity at the fiend. You were pissed off and laser focused, so you didn't hit any of the stone around it. The skeleton of the fiend took the full brunt of the attack, and you saw it's bones beginning to crack and fill with the light of your lightning. It would only take a few more hits and it would be toast.

As soon as your attack stopped, it pointed a gnarled claw bone at you and shrieked out it's Pharaoh's Curse. You stared in utter disbelief and confusion as the black cloud descended on you again. You were wide open on the floor, and completely blind and defenseless again. You couldn't even call out to Zack for help, because the curse took your voice away, too. You could hear them calling out to you, but all sound was quickly drowned out by the white hot pain of your leg being sliced through by three sharp claws as the other two clenched around you so it had your foot in a death grip. You couldn't even scream as it threw you into a crumbled section of stone bleachers.

"I'm coming! Just hold on!" Zack called out to you, but your head was reeling and you had a hard time placing where his voice was coming from. It was hard to focus on anything other than the pain in your back and hip, where you collided with the stone before falling to the ground. You felt the cold splash of him throwing a remedy in your face to bring back your sight and voice, but the remedy just stung your eyes and made them water even more, "Shit, your leg... can you stand?"

"ZACK!" Gippal yelled, seeing something he didn't, apparently, and you had your eyes clenched shut against the burning liquid still, so you didn't see it either. You wrenched your eyes open just in time to see Zack throw his arms out to try to keep you protected as the fiend slashed at the two of you. Something in you clicked off, like someone hit the off switch to the thinking part of your brain and pure instinct took over. You shoved your way in front of Zack, and let the creature sink it's claw into your shoulder. Zack was hit right behind you, and the force of the blow knocked him to his ass, but you weren't shaken. You didn't even feel the pain when the thick talons sliced over your collarbones as it slashed across your chest. You snatched your left hand out in front of you and your fingers caught hold of the wrist bone of the fiend, and somehow you were strong enough to keep the fiend in place.

"Begone." A voice that wasn't your own said, though the word came from your mouth and you felt the vibration in your throat. Your hand lit up with a blinding white light, and it looked like white magic was emanating from you into the fiend. Pearls of light began to ricochet through the fiend violently, as though the beads of light were ripping it apart on your command. There was a final, blinding flood of light that flared out around the fiend, and then in an instant the living stone fossil fell backwards to the ground and burst into pyreflies.

The light from your spell died, and you saw the skin on your arm had gone completely gray and all your veins had bulged out to create thick lines running the length of your forearm to your fingers. You gasped, and your voice was your own again.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈!" Zack was up on his feet again, and he rushed over to catch you as you began to fall backwards.

"What the hell was that?" Gippal marveled, trying to get to his feet even though his left leg was still mostly stone.

"I-I don't..." You blundered, crashing backwards into Zack's outstretched arms. You would have surely hit the ground if he hadn't been there to catch you.

"Shh, don't talk. We're getting out of here," Zack said, lifting you into his arms and making for the entrance. Your head fell back limply, and you caught sight of the silver haired man standing in a blitz viewing booth high above the ground level bleachers. There were others with him but before you could say anything or really get a good look at them, Zack adjusted the position you were being carried in and you could no longer see them.

"Was that her? It certainly seemed like she was waking up, there." Yazoo crossed his arms and watched curiously as the pyreflies from the Monolith began to dance around the room as they ascended.

"That was some magic. Must be her." Loz agreed, nodding like he was certain.

"She's fairly strong, but that was messy. Too messy. And she's mostly just... scrappy. Jenova isn't scrappy. She's a force of nature, she doesn't need to be. She would have leveled that fiend with one look."

"The Jenova cells are still dormant," Sephiroth said firmly, turning his back on the stadium below like the show he was expecting hadn't been delivered and he was disappointed. "They are waking up, but slowly. She's not ready yet. The more danger her life is in, the faster the cells will awaken and the faster Jenova's transfer can occur. Perhaps we should take matters into our own hands."

"Maybe we should, but... are we even sure she'll be the one who will be the new vessel?" Yazoo asked, following after his father as he began to walk away.

"Did you see that spell? It has to be her. That wasn't normal," Loz argued, getting to his feet and following as well.

"We're all capable of extraordinary feats. Who's to say her gift isn't magic?" Yazoo asked.

"Her gift is magic. Black Magic. Whatever that was, it wasn't Black Magic. It looked like a holy spell; the strongest form of White Magic. And she doesn't even know basic White Magic as far as I can tell. There is no reasonable explanation for it. It must have been Jenova's cells working through her," Kadaj said.

"We will see. It's down to the three of them, after all. She just appears to be the most promising candidate. For now," Sephiroth said coolly, holding a hand up to break the sealing spells holding four other entombed Monolith fiends near where the three of you were gathered on the ground floor.

The stone walls around you began to crack as more fiends broke free from their stoney prisons.

"Oh no. Hell no! Run!" Zack said to Gippal as he threw you over his shoulder and took off for the door. More fiends were coming, and you were in no condition to handle them anymore. You were lucky to have killed the first one, to be honest. None of you got away completely unscathed when there was just one of them. Gippal was half stone, and you and Zack both got pretty badly clawed up, though your injuries were definitely the most concerning. Zack had been slashed across the neck and cheek, but you were split up from shoulder to shoulder across your chest and on the leg, and that pipe injury certainly wasn't helping. None of it seemed particularly deep or immediately life threatening itself but you were losing a lot of blood and an unhealthy looking black smoke was rising from the wounds, like they were full of some foul, sinister poison from the fiend that was coursing through you now. On top of that, your body burned with a kind of residual agony from that spell you had cast like you had never felt before, like whatever that kind of magic was had been as deadly to you as it had been the fiend.

Zack was the only one who was still mostly in one piece, and it had to stay that way if there was ever going to be a chance for the three of you to make it out of this alive. Gippal was struggling along, trying as hard as he could to keep up through his limping gait as he dragged his stone foot behind him, but right now Zack's number one priority was getting to a safe enough area that he could treat you. He even put his sword away so he could focus on running. It was extremely uncomfortable for you, and each step he took caused his shoulder to jab into your stomach and bounce you around, making you feel like you were going to puke on top of all the pain.

It wasn't anything like stigma pain, either. It was like acid was running through your veins and burning you in a way that felt far sharper and more astringent than any flame ever could. Zack must have gotten to an area he thought was safe enough, because he suddenly stopped running and dropped you down into the dirt. You were flung off his shoulder and onto your butt, then your momentum was so strong you rolled down onto your back and smacked your head on the hard rocky ground. The quick flipping from being upside-down over his shoulder to being flat on your back made your head spin and your stomach turn so badly that you had no choice but to roll over and throw up.

"Don't move, I'll be right back. I promise," Zack said, sounding conflicted about leaving you, but Gippal needed his help, too, and you were already safe as long as he could get back in time to help you. He sprinted back down the path to grab Gippal while you dug your fingers into the dirt and tried to make yourself stop spewing your guts on the floor long enough that you could see where you were and what was going on. There was definitely some kind of poison in your system that your body was desperately trying to reject, because you couldn't stop. It had been ages since you had eaten, and yet you kept going until there was literally nothing left inside your stomach to come up anymore, and even then you felt the gagging, heaving feeling of your body still trying to throw up more.

"Come on, we have to get back to the ship!" Zack said, and you felt a hand grab the back of your shirt and pull you up to your feet just long enough that he could get a grip on you as he tucked you under his arm and started running. Gippal was on his shoulders in a fireman's carry position, and you were hanging from his arm by his hip, but he kept running as fast as he could. He must have had some kind of adrenaline rush going for him, because he wasn't slowing down for anything in this world despite the massive strain carrying both of you must have been taking on him.

But his grip on you was so painful you couldn't stand it much longer. It was like his arm was burning your stomach through your shirt where he was carrying you, and your full weight was being put into a single point of contact against his arm and it was killing you. The longer you were stuck there, pressed into his arm by gravity, the more it began to hurt. You thought it was just discomfort from being carried so roughly, but then you began to hear the actual sizzle of your skin being burned. It didn't feel hot though. It was more like acid had been poured into your skin, and it was unbearable.

"Stop," you tried, your voice weak and hoarse from being silenced and not properly treated earlier. "Stop!" you said again, putting a hand on Zack's, then wincing and withdrawing it sharply as that acidic burning sensation stung at your fingertips when you touched him. You shoved away from him, desperate for the pain to stop, and you fell to the ground on your side hard before rolling a few times and coming to a stop in the dirt on your back.

"What are you--!" Zack began, then gasped as you writhed in pain and clutched at the mark his arm had left on your stomach. There was blood staining your shirt from the inside now, and you flipped it up to reveal black, blistered and bloody skin below.

"Put me down, help her," Gippal said right after seeing you, and Zack did as he said.

"Call Ven. We need help. Now," Zack ordered, dropping to his knees beside you. He held a healing hand over your stomach and inhaled deeply as he pressed his palm into the charred, dead looking skin. You screamed in pain and thrashed around to try and get away from him, but he just pinned you down with his free hand and pressed harder into your abdomen. You clawed at his arm, desperate to get him off you, but you couldn't move him. "I know it hurts, but I have to heal it," he said, feeling a sick pang of guilt in his stomach as he held you in place despite your screaming. You began to dig your nails into his arms until they pierced his skin and began to leave bloody claw marks down his forearm. "It'll all be over soon," he said through a clenched jaw, though it was more for his sake than yours at this point. Your screams died in your throat as you strained against him with all your might. It felt like he was holding a hot iron to your skin, and he was so much stronger than you that you couldn't jerk your way free no matter how much you moved around. He was alarmed by how much you were fighting him, but just kept pressing you down into the ground harder so he could keep you still as you cried out in agony.

He pulled his hand away to check if he was even healing anything, then his eyes widened in horror as he saw an outline of his hand in black, foul smelling, rotten skin. It was as though his magic was killing your skin cells, not healing them. "Remedy... Gippal, Remedy....Gippal! Remedy!" He called out frantically for Gippal, who had taken his bag of emergency medical supplies back in the blitz stadium so he could keep giving himself Remedies and Softs to try and fix his leg while Zack went after you during the fight.

Gippal struggled to dig through the supply bag with his stone hand on one arm and the phone stuck in his hand on the other, but he came up with the vial quickly and tossed it over to Zack. Zack caught it and uncorked it with his teeth as he moved over to support your head on his knees. He opened your mouth by pulling down on your jaw and winced with clenched teeth as he saw the burning imprints his fingers were leaving on your face, but he had no choice. He got your mouth open and dumped the liquid in, then retracted his hands and waited for it to take effect.

"Where's Ven?" he asked desperately, watching as you coughed and choked on every drop that went into your mouth. Some of the liquid spilled from your lips and streamed down the side of you cheek, leaving a red, chemical burn trail behind it. "No... no! Goddamnit, no! Gippal! Are you sure that was a Remedy?"

"Al Bhed potion. Cures poison, silence, and petrification, plus a healing boost!" He shot back, sounding absolutely certain of himself despite the panic that was starting to set in, "Fucking fuck! I can't get a fucking signal!" Gippal blundered in frustration as he pulled his phone away from his ear and tried to do something--anything--that would make the call go through.

Your voice broke into a pained whimper as you opened your mouth again, having swallowed all of the potion that had been given to you. Blisters formed on the inside of your mouth and down your throat, and it felt like the liquid was destroying your insides as your outsides bled out in the dirt.

"Sat phone..." Zack said, staring at you in absolute shock. He needed to fight hard to keep his brain from shutting down as he watched the visceral reaction you were having to all his attempts to save you. He needed help, and it was taking all of his strength to keep focused and not start panicking. Gippal was also having trouble keeping his wheels turning, so Zack repeated, "Sat phone! The ship has a satellite phone! Can you get there!?"

"No. Not fast enough. Just hold on," Gippal said, digging through his pack for something or another, feeling the immense weight of his still stone-touched limbs slowing him down considerably.

"I can't hold on, she's gonna... Gippal, she's..." Zack couldn't finish the sentence, and instead tried to focus on what he could do for you. He tried to put pressure on the cuts over your chest to slow the bleeding, but he heard the crackle of your skin reacting to his and knew he was just making it worse. Your throat was too badly burned from the Potion to make sound anymore, but he knew that if you could, you would be screaming as his mere touch tortured you. He grabbed the sweatshirt he had in his bag and wadded it up to use as a buffer between his skin and yours and tried to keep pressure on your chest, but it was beginning to look like a losing battle.

"VEN! You need to get here. NOW!" Gippal exclaimed, finally getting his call to go through after attaching a makeshift copper wire antenna to his phone, "No, shut up. Shut the fuck up! This isn't a prank. Get here now! I sent the coordinates, but if they don't come through, just get to the Zanarkand ruins, we're on the path leading to the city from Gagazet. Hurry. Leave now." He was hyperventilating almost, like this was the most serious he had ever been in his life, and Ven was joking around, "Don't--No! Drop what you're doing! We need you now! ≈≈≈≈≈≈'s gonna die if you don't get here soon! We are at death's door here, buddy, get your ass in gear already!"

At his words, Zack bit his lip to try to make himself feel anything other than the utter dread that was washing over him as he looked at your face. You were dying. Your wounds were killing you. His magic was killing you. The curatives he had given you were killing you. He was killing you.

Your eyes looked glazed over and hazy as you stared vacantly at the gray sky above, and he could hear the wheezing hitching of your breath as each inhale became more of a struggle. You became so pale he could see every vein in your face, and the blue-green hue of them was slowly becoming black as whatever this insidious poison was began to spread through your bloodstream.

"Iamdeadfuckingserious!" Gippal seethed into the phone, "Zack has whatever it is too. Look man, we're dead if you don't get here and help us. Literally. You need to hurry the fuck up!"

Zack didn't even notice that his own cheek was starting to burn where he had been scratched until the sizzling sound finally caught his attention. He realized Gippal was right. Whatever it was, he had it too. When he stopped focusing on you, he suddenly realized the searing pain he felt in his own body. He brought a hand up to his cheek, then closed his eyes in anguish as his touch intensified the pain tenfold.

Gippal dropped to his knees beside you and made to put a hand on you, causing Zack to start.

"Don't! Don't touch her." He tried to block Gippal's hand, but Gippal had already moved to wipe the blood from your lips. You didn't react like it was hurting you, but your head fell sideways into his hand limply. Gippal shot Zack a mortified look, and Zack ignored his own advice and put his hands on either side of your face to get you looking up again.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈, stay with me. You're gonna be okay, you hear me?" Gippal said, trying to position himself in your eye line. You were just staring up at the sky with glazed over, watery eyes, and he heard the faintest trace of a whisper come from your lips before more tears began to roll from your eyes. Gippal's eyes widened and he looked up at Zack with a pale, terrified expression as he realized what that gravelly hiss of air gurgling in your throat was, "She's... screaming..."

"Oh, god..." Zack's voice cracked as he took his hands away, and there were fresh imprints of his fingertips burned into your temples. He clenched his fists in anguish, realizing again that all of his attempts to help were only making things worse. He was tormenting you with every touch, but he didn't know what else to do.

"Keep it together. What can we do?" Gippal said, grabbing Zack by the front of his shirt and shaking him lightly. He was breaking. His eyes were starting to water and he kept staring at you in disbelief. "Zack! Focus!"

At Gippal's rough shoving, Zack began to come back to his senses. He tried to snap out of it and begin thinking tactically about how they could best keep you alive while waiting for Ven. "Her leg. Get her leg, put pressure on it." He finally said after forcing his mind to focus.

"Blood loss isn't what's killing her," Gippal said as he struggled to maneuver his stone limbs so he could sit by your legs. Luckily, his stone hand was extremely heavy, so he was able to put a fair bit of pressure on you. You weren't even resisting them anymore or trying to pull away. All you could do was scream silently and pray for this all to end.

"No, but I can't treat what is. We just need to keep her alive until Ven gets here."

"We will. You hear me ≈≈≈≈≈≈? Stay alive, damn it," Gippal said, taking his belt off and using it as a tourniquet around your thigh to cut off the blood supply to your shin.

You gave the weakest nod, and Zack clenched his jaw and tried to swallow the whimper of terror that he could feel building in his throat. He wanted so badly to reach down and heal you, to stop the spread of that horrible black poison that was washing over you and take away all the pain it was causing you, but he couldn't even touch you. He couldn't even brush your hair away from your face without hurting you. Hot tears rolled down his cheeks and dripped off his chin, landing on your forehead. You winced and he gasped as he saw the damage just his tears were doing to you. They bubbled and hissed on contact with your skin, and he just watched horror struck as his tears burned you like they were made of acid. They fizzed until all the water had evaporated, leaving two deep, bloody craters on your forehead when they finally sizzled out. When it stopped, your expression softened and you closed your heavy eyes. Zack jerked your head up with his knee, and your eyes opened again to his relief, but they were so dark now. There was still an almost gray film over them from the blinding effect of the fiend's curse, so it was hard to say if you could even see him anymore at this point. They were so dim and completely unresponsive to anything he did. Did you know they were still there with you, or were you just laying there, blind and helpless, as they tortured you?

"Just keep breathing. Don't you dare give up," Gippal said to you, taking hold of your hand with his good hand and giving your fingers a squeeze, "Stay with me, Strife. Help is on the way."

"How long?" Zack asked, his voice weak and shaking.

"Ven was in Bevelle. Won't be more than twenty minutes. You stay with me, too. You don't look so good," Gippal said, noticing that the color was starting to drain out of Zack's face as well, and he was getting those black spider veins across his face now, too. It was spreading, and it was spreading fast.

"Just twenty minutes..." Zack nodded, feeling like his head was on fire. It was like the worst fever he had ever had. It was making him nauseatingly dizzy, and he felt hot and cold at the same time as he began to break out into a cold sweat. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to stay conscious much longer, but he did his best to bite back on the pain and focused instead on looking at your face.

Your eyes were just getting darker and darker, but you kept breathing. It was shaky and uneven, but you were still forcing yourself to keep breathing.

All any of you could do was wonder how things came to this. Everything was fine with the three of you, or at least it seemed like everything was survivable, and then suddenly it all took such a drastic turn. Zack couldn't help but wonder if he had done this to you. You were okay until he started trying to help you. Now you were in such all-consuming pain that he wasn't even sure if you were still conscious, or if you had checked out. Your eyes were open, but you certainly weren't responding to anything they did anymore. He waved a hand over your face, but it didn't break your gaze away from the clouds above. Your pupils were so dilated from the pain that he couldn't even see the beautiful ~~~~~~ irises he loved so much. Your complexion had gone completely gray and devoid of any sign of life. He could see all too clearly that you were slipping away, and it was all his fault.

"Please, be okay. Please...I need you to be okay." Zack hovered his shaking hand over your forehead and hesitated, wanting so badly to get the hair out of your face and to heal up those ugly, painful looking marks he put there himself by accident. How was he ever supposed to forgive himself for this? "Please..." He had to bite back more tears, knowing full well how dangerous it would be to let anymore tears run down his face or god forbid land on you again. He already felt the sting from the tracks his tears left on his own cheek the first time, and his eyes were burning terribly, but there was nothing he could do about it. He would just have to wait, and hope Ven got there before it was too late. If you died here, the last thing you would have ever said to him was "Stop!" before screaming in pain as he held you down.

Less than ten minutes went by when the hum of a motor began to echo off the ruined machina towers. Suddenly, your face was illuminated by a bright white light that cut through all the haze and confusion and you were able to focus on something and really see it for the first time in what felt like ages. Your dark eyes were flooded by the spotlight of a gummi ship, and Zack and Gippal both gasped and looked up, hearing the buzz of the ship approaching. Gippal stood up and began waving his arms around frantically, hoping that it was Ven's ship and that he could see the three of you.

"Over here! Hey!" Gippal yelled, and sure enough, the ship began to land in the nearest open patch of land to you. The ship's ramp began to extend well before the ship actually landed, and as soon as the door was down enough that he could slip out, Ven came sprinting out of the ship and jumped the remaining distance to the ground as the ship's autopilot landed it for him and Gippal ran over to meet him.

"What happened?" he asked Gippal, trying to assess him for damage. The stone on Gippal's arm and leg was still slowly receding, so now he was just petrified from the wrist and ankle down, but he was more concerned with the fact that the stone on his hands and clothes were covered in blood.

"Don't worry about me. It's ≈≈≈≈≈≈. And Zack." Gippal tried to explain as he pulled Ven by the collar of his white lab coat closer to where Zack was holding you in his lap. Even though Ven took Gippal's hand and shattered the stone that was encasing him with a touch, his eyes were glued to you and Zack as they made their way over.

"What the hell happened?" Ven repeated, much more concerned and serious sounding now that he was able to see the state of the two of you.

"We don't know. It was this thing... an old, old ass fiend. Ancient. It scratched them, and now... well..." Gippal began as Ven left him and rushed over, dropping to his knees at your side.

"Okay. It's okay. I'm here now," he said, reaching for your face. His touch hit you like an electric shock, like the gentle brush of his fingertips ripped the air from your lungs and sent you into violent convulsions. As soon as he touched you, it was lights out and you were lost to stigma dreams of the lifestream.

∞

Your eyes felt heavy and crusty, like you had been asleep for hours on end and it was not restful. Everything ached and burned, and you could barely move a muscle. You tried to roll onto your side to find a more comfortable lying position, but as soon as you moved a wave of new pain washed over you. Your ribs screamed in blinding agony as you tried to twist your torso, but you couldn't even make a ghost of a whimper emanate from your scorched throat. Your head felt like it was spinning and on fire at the same time, and the mere thought of the effort it would take to open your eyes made you feel nauseous.

"Is there anything you can do for her?" a voice asked. It took you a surprisingly long time to recognize that it was Gippal's voice. You were so out of it that you couldn't immediately place Gippal's voice. It was nice to have something to focus on other than the overwhelming pain you felt all over, but it was also discouragingly hard to pay attention.

"Yeah, I can stare regretfully at her," a new voice drawled sarcastically, sounding closer to your head than Gippal had. You knew that voice.

"You know, I'm surprisingly not super in the mood for sarcasm right now. It's the craziest thing," Gippal said in a voice that was dripping with annoyance.

"Wow. Imagine that, someone annoying you for once." It was...

"Ven," Gippal snapped, not in a joking mood in the slightest.

"Relax. She'll be okay." Ven sounded calm and sure of himself, but Gippal's nerves were clearly getting the better of him.

"She doesn't look okay," Gippal shot back in an unconvinced, mocking tone. You had to agree with him. You didn't feel okay, either.

"Well, whose fault is that?" Ven laughed, but it was mirthless and cold laughter.

"Not mine..." Gippal mumbled, then he sighed heavily, "Can't you just... make her better yet? Isn't that what we pay you for?"

"I can't get near her until we get that poison out of her system, you saw what happened back there," Ven explained in a slightly more gentle tone before adding, "And you've never paid me for anything in your life."

"How long until the poison clears?" Gippal sounded nervous, and his voice's distance from you kept wavering, like he must have been pacing around the room.

"Few more hours, maybe. Zack should be ready for treatment sooner, though. He wasn't nearly as bad, and you dumbasses didn't make him drink curatives after contracting... what did you call it?"

"Zombie status," Gippal said in a dead serious tone.

"Zombie status." Ven's voice held a sarcastic and jovial enough tone that you knew he was smirking. "That's... certainly one way to put it."

"Can you put her in a coma like you did Zack? She looks miserable."

"She is miserable. Probably has something to do with the fact that you guys burned the shit out of her face."

"Ven..." Gippal seethed through his teeth in such a way that it sounded more like a threat than anything else.

"No. I can't. Zack needed to be in the coma. Your... zombie status....or whatever it's really called, works by negating all white magic and healing items and turning them on the user. Like, if your health was a game of numbers, and potion normally restores 50 health points, with zombie status instead of restoring health points it takes away 50 points. But this is real life, so instead of health points getting taken away arbitrarily, you make her drink a potion, you burn her mouth and throat and wreak so much havoc on her insides that will take me hours to set straight."

"Aw, I'm sorry Vennybear, did you have big plans for today?"

"No way, you know clearing chemical burns off intestinal linings is a favorite pastime activity of mine."

"Cute. Real cute. Now I remember why we don't keep you around."

"Because I'm the only one who doubles down on my bullshit as hard as you do?"

"'Cuz you're kind of a dick, yeah."

"Anyway..." Ven sighed with a tired sounding bite in his voice, "since Zack knows White Magic, his body was trying to repair the damage done to it subconsciously, and if we let that happen while he has... zombie status....he could have killed himself completely unintentionally. His brain and body would have fried themselves while trying to heal him. A comatose state that turned off all his magic was the only way to protect him from that. But ≈≈≈≈≈≈ doesn't need that."

"Looks like she needs it."

"It might make her more comfortable, but it would be harder to tell if she started dying on us if I put her out."

Gippal paused for a bit, like he hadn't been aware that was even still a possibility, "How do you mean?"

"Well, if I knock her out and immobilize her, and then one of those stomach ulcers bursts or perforates and her insides start filling up with blood, she's likely to choke on it quietly and drown in her own blood if we don't catch it."

"Jesus Christ, dude..."

"So I'm leaving her awake, hoping she'll be kind enough to cough for me if that happens. In the meantime, some good old fashioned, non-magical painkillers are the best I can do for now."

"... I'm not comfortable in this room anymore."

"You're welcome to sit with Zack."

"Yeah... think I might go do that for a bit."

"Cool. Make sure he's still kicking for me, will you?" Ven said in an overly casual tone that made Gippal hum in discomfort.

"You're kind of the worst doctor I've ever met."

"I'd rather be a shitty doctor than a shitty fiend hunter."

"You know...." Gippal began, sounding more than a little irritated, but he didn't finish the thought. There were footsteps, then a door opened and closed, and you figured Gippal left. Silence fell over the room, and with nothing left to cling onto for focus, your attention returned to the dizzying pain in your body until you passed out again.

Sometime later you woke up with no memory of having fallen asleep. This time your eyes fluttered open and were greeted to the blinding light of a lamp beside the bed you were in. You tried to raise your hand to cover your eyes, but it got caught in the cords of an IV and you were forced to keep your hand down.

"Hey there, sleepy head. Have a nice nap?" Ven greeted you in a gentle voice, perking up as soon as you started moving in a way that wasn't just sleepy adjustments. He let out a relieved breath and gave you a warm smile as you tried to sit up.

You had finally woken up.

You blinked slowly as you looked around the room, trying to get a sense of where you were and what had happened. It was difficult to see through the spinning double vision that was all but blinding you, but you were able to take in a few details of the room. It was definitely a travel agency bedroom if the furniture and decorations had anything to say about it, though you didn't recognize this particular one. There was some medical equipment spread around the room that had been brought in from Ven's ship, like the IV drip machine you were hooked up to, packs of first aid equipment on the floor in the corner, and a small rolling table that was loaded up with vials of clear liquid, but other than that it was just a normal room. It was hard to feel like you didn't need to throw up while the room spun so vividly, so you tried to focus on the blur of blonde hair and the white coat you saw seated in a chair at your bedside.

"Ven..." Your eyes focused on him as best you could make them, and, even though it was fuzzy and you couldn't make out the details of his face, you knew it was him. He was really there, right in front of you, after all this time of no contact. The mix of surprise and relief you felt upon seeing him made you feel like crying, somehow.

You blinked several times to try to clear the haze and stop the spinning that had overtaken your vision, and it seemed to improve a little. Enough that you could now see he looked a little messy, with wilder hair than usual and soft, sleepy eyes. His lab coat was splotched by blood and dirt, and his glasses were sitting slightly off center on his nose, like he had been working all night long and hadn't taken a minute to sort himself out since finding you. You couldn't believe you were seeing him again, and you fought the weakness and pain that filled you so you could reach for his hand where it was resting on the bed by your hip, but he quickly pulled it away as soon as he caught on to your intention.

"Don't!" he said quickly as he pulled away, then added, "Don't touch me. It'll just hurt you. There's still a good bit of poison in you, so... if you touch me, I'll probably burn you. Ha, now there's a switch. Usually you're the one we have to be careful touching," he joked, trying to lighten the mood after seeing how you looked a little crushed when he recoiled from you. You're look softened a little, but the hurt expression on your face was still painfully clear, and not just from the physical discomfort of your injuries. "God, this is killing me," he mumbled, sitting on his hands after he caught himself thinking about adjusting the blanket around your shoulders for a moment until he considered the consequences.

"What happened?" you asked, and it felt like you had to work extremely hard to find your voice. It barely even sounded like your voice, it was so scratchy and hoarse, and he had to lean in to hear what was frankly just barely above a whisper, but it was the best you could do. Everything just felt so unbelievably terrible. You took a look down at your right arm since it was the only part of you not tucked under the covers, and there was a needle sticking out of a nasty looking patch of burned, blistered skin over your elbow.

"Oh, that..." He sighed, deflating in his chair a little bit as he examined the black, burned, and mostly dead skin in the area, "I had to be the one to put the IV in. I tried to get Gippal to do it, since he can't give you third degree burns with a graze of his fingertip, but... he couldn't do it."

"You gave Gippal a needle and told him to stick me?" You tried to adjust yourself into a comfortable seated position, but there was just nothing comfortable about any part of your body right now no matter what you did, and sitting up only made the dizziness worse. You tried to just keep your focus on Ven to distract yourself. At your comment, a slightly relieved smile found its way to his lips, like he was happy to see you were still mostly yourself even after all that had happened.

"I gave him some fruit to practice on, but after a certain point I kinda just wanted to get it over with so we could get to work on making you better."

"Am I better yet?" you asked with a very noticeable voice crack in between words, smirking weakly at him in a sarcastic fashion.

"Hush, you." He gave you a lazy look in return, then sighed as his eyes scanned your face over the brim of his glasses. They began to slide down his nose, and he had to free one of his hands to push them back up so he could continue to study all the marks and burns on your skin from afar with a frown. It was incredibly frustrating. He could heal them up in no time at all if he could just touch you. "So... do you wanna see the damage? It's..." He wasn't sure how honest to be with you right now. 'Horrible' was what he wanted to say, but he decided to go with "quite a sight," instead.

"How bad is it?" you asked, and he got to his feet to grab the hand mirror that was hanging in the bathroom and brought it out to you.

He held it into his chest and hesitated a moment as he walked back to you, saying, "Now, don't freak out, okay? There's nothing that's been done that I can't undo... but until I'm able to fix you up, you look a little... rough."

"You don't look so good yourself, four-eyes. Stop stalling." You brushed his comment off, reaching for the mirror as best you could with your stiff and hollow feeling limbs. He was about to hand it off to you, but then realized how close your hand would need to get to his to take it from him, so he instead knelt beside you and held the mirror up for you. "Oh, god..." you mumbled, sinking into the bed and staring at your reflection in total shock.

"It's not so bad... once you get used to it." He tried to be supportive, but there was nothing 'not so bad' about any of what had happened to you.

"I look like a zombie." You deflated, seeing the dark veins and damaged skin all over your face.

"Hey, that's what Gippal said." He laughed lightly, though he stopped quickly when he saw the perturbed look on your face as you put a hand on the back of the mirror and began to tilt it around to see different angles of your face, and then down to your chest.

"Oh, god!" You gasped at the sight of your chest.

"The poison in your system turns White Magic against you. The only cure is a pretty rare curative called Holy Water, but when the poison is allowed to circulate through the bloodstream for as long as it was in you, it takes a hell of a long time to filter it all out. Hours even, no matter if you drink it or inject it. But if you pour it, say onto a stupidly large scratch on a very unlucky girl's chest, then you have a few seconds worth of time to heal things up. So, that's what I did. Poured some Holy Water on the wounds so I could get them to stop bleeding so you would live long enough that we could clear the poison." He explained, trying to justify why there were massive, barely healed scabs covering the length of the jagged claw marks on your chest. Like all he was able to do was throw down a thin layer of skin to trap the blood and keep it inside you.

"What's this handprint?" You asked, pulling the mirror out of his hands and looking at the exposed red tissue that had interrupted the natural progression of the claw marks on your chest, leaving a black, charred outline in the distinct shape of a handprint right over your heart.

"Right, that..." He bit his lip as he looked at the marks he had inflicted himself trying to save your life. He sighed as he returned to the seat by your bedside with a look of utter shame and contrition as he stared at his hands like they had betrayed him, "≈≈≈≈≈≈...you have to understand... I didn't know. I didn't know what happened to you, so I didn't think... "

He was clearly struggling to find the right words to say, and it was distracting enough that you put the mirror down to look at him. "What is it?" you pressed him gently, wondering what could have happened that made him look like that.

"Your heart stopped, you technically died," he said, running a hand through his hair like he often did when he felt uncomfortable, "I killed you."

Your first instinct was to laugh because clearly he didn't kill you, but his brow was knitted together in such a guilty way, and the look in his eye was something you could only describe as haunted. He either knew something you didn't, or he truly believed that he had killed you.

"You sure about that?" you asked, taking another look at your marked up and veiny face, "Cuz this is a pretty shitty afterlife, if you did."

"Don't joke. Please, just... don't." He shook his head lightly, like he was reliving the whole experience and it was painfully vivid, "I didn't know that you were afflicted with something that rejects White Magic, so I... the first thing I did was try and hit you with a massive burst of healing, and... and it shocked your system so badly I'm surprised you didn't die on the spot."

Your eyes widened slightly, but you tried to keep your reaction to yourself as you realized the last thing you remembered was him reaching out for you before everything went black.

"It stopped your heart and your breathing. For 166 seconds." He ruffled up his hair again, clearly very uncomfortable, "For almost three minutes, you were clinically dead."

"That's not very long," you said, thinking that might be of some comfort to him at least. It wasn't like he killed you for an hour, or a day even. And he certainly hadn't killed you for good. Then you might be a little mad.

"With no oxygen and no blood pumping to it, the brain starts to decay and die just after six minutes. 360 seconds. You were halfway to brain dead before we got you back. I couldn't restart your heart with magic either, because... even though you were dead, you were still full of poison, and your body was rejecting any kind of healing I tried."

"I don't understand... how did you bring me back, then?"

"Zack had been drinking Holy Water at that point, so he gave you mouth-to-mouth while I stabbed a syringe full of Holy Water into your heart, then tried to resuscitate you with small bursts of magic while the water still had an effect. Then as soon as I started burning you again, I would repeat the process over again."

"That sounds..." You paused, trying to think what that must have been like for all of them. You were dying right in front of them, and the only way they knew how to help you was making it worse. They did whatever it took to save you, even if it meant Zack trying to literally breathe the life back into you and Ven having to stab into you again and again with a syringe until he could get your heart going again. "You guys saved my life..." You stared at him in disbelief, but he just shook his head.

"I didn't save you. I killed you. Painfully."

"You brought me back," you said definitively, like you wouldn't hear him say he killed you again knowing how hard he worked to bring you back. The evidence of that was literally burned into your skin. But he just shook his hung head and continued to refuse to look at you.

"The stigma..." he said in a quiet and strained voice, like he was forcing himself to say things he would rather have left unsaid, "The stigma is what brought you back."

You shook your head a little now, too, not sure what he meant, "What?"

"It wasn't me. It was... I could have been doing chest compressions all day long and gotten nowhere. But..then the stigma began to pump out of your heart. The disease spreads from your heart involuntarily, like a muscle spasm, almost, so it was just doing what it naturally does and it happened to line up with what I was doing. The stigma spreading at the exact moment as my chest compressions is what caused your heart to jump back to life. You were knocking on heavens doors and if it had been left up to me, somebody might have answered you. If it had been Zack or Gippal who took the hits you did, they'd be dead. Geostigma saved your life."

You settled back into the bed with a hand pressed lightly over your chest, uncomfortable at the thought. You woke up having no idea that you had died in between the time you went to sleep and when you woke. You might not have woken up, too.

"So, I really... died? Like, actually died?"

He didn't answer you verbally. Just nodded a little before returning to staring at his hands.

"Would you just look at me?" You sighed, seeing that he was determined to keep spinning the wristband on his left arm and avoid eye contact.

"I can't..." he said weakly, "How could I possibly m--≈≈≈≈≈≈!" He gasped as you forced yourself upright and leaned over to take one of his hands in yours.

"It's not your fault." You shook your head at him as you squeezed his hand. It stung, but then again your body hurt all over anyway. What were a few new uncomfortable sensations in the sea of pain you were already drowning in? You decided you could handle this level of pain, and allowed yourself to lean into him in a loose hug. His breath hitched, and he turned his face into your neck as his hands came around your back to return your hug. He closed his eyes and let out a staggered breath as he pulled you in, like he couldn't believe it felt so good to have someone give him an awkward one-armed hug from a bed, and yet here he was, completely reveling in it.

He wanted you to stay longer, but you let out your own shaky breath and he realized how much it was hurting you to try and comfort him. You winced in pain as you tried to push away from him to get back into bed, and he had to watch longingly as you grit your teeth to try and fight the anguish you had just inflicted on yourself. There was a slight redness to your skin now that hadn't been there before, and it looked like you were struggling terribly to try and find the strength to lay down again. In the end, you couldn't muster the core strength to gently roll back down into a lying position and just kind of flopped back into the pillows with a pained groan.

"I'm sorry... " was the only thing he could think to say to you as he carefully covered you with the blankets again.

"It's okay." You gave a casual shrug, though you couldn't help but look at your hand and grimace slightly at the sight of the red imprint he left on your fingers and arms as he uncovered your IVed arm to make sure it was still okay.

"I'm sorry for everything. I never should have left you. I'm so sorry."

"Don't apologize... just..try not to kill me while I nap." You ignored his serious tone completely as you tried to settle back into your pillow, feeling completely drained of all your energy after the strain of sitting up. Not to mention the irritation and stinging sensation you felt after touching him. It was like hugging a stack of needles.

"That's not funny," he said, but your eyes had closed and you had a peaceful look on your face already, "You hear me?"

"I hear you. Doesn't mean I'll listen." You gave a small smile as you settled into bed.

"Of course not. When do you ever listen to me? You have a head like adamantite," he said, but you had already started to drift back to sleep. He tried to shake the bed a little, like he wanted you to keep talking to him, but it seemed like you were already asleep again, and he realized the toll hugging him must have had on you. But you did it anyway, and you did it with a smile. As he watched the steady rising and fall of your ribcage while you slept, he began to wonder why he ever thought it was a good idea to try and give you some distance. It certainly wasn't for your sake, since without him you wound up in a situation like this, and, even if being apart meant Vanitas didn't trouble him as much, he was miserable these past few weeks so it really wasn't for his sake either. There was nowhere he would have rather been than at your beside watching you sleep like nothing had changed from your days together in Traverse Town.

∞

"Look! She's coming to!" Gippal said excitedly as you began to wake up. Your eyes opened and you saw him standing at the foot of your bed with a big smile on his face. "There's my angel!"

Ven just sighed and grumbled, "If you don't shut up, I'm going to–"

"Kill me? Well, we all know you're capable of–"

"Gippal!" you scolded, cutting him off before he could finish his joke. It was one thing for you to tease him about it, but Gippal should have known better.

"Oh, shit, I thought he was kidding," Ven mumbled as he pulled his eyes away from your shin to look at you. He had uncovered your injured leg from the blankets and was working on healing up where the pipe cut you and the creature scratched you down the whole front of your shin and foot.

"I wish he was... why do I still feel like crap?" you asked, trying to sit up. Gippal even came over to adjust your pillows behind you to make it easier, but your arms felt like jelly and couldn't really support your weight well enough to get you upright.

"He just started. I told him to get to work ages ago, but he just didn't want to listen. Nobody ever listens to me." Gippal sighed, fluffing your pillows and giving the top of your head a kiss with an exaggerated 'mwah' sound before returning to his place by the foot of the bed so he could watch Ven work.

"There's still poison in your system, but if I work with the Holy Water topically then I can at least heal some of this surface stuff," Ven explained, waving a cotton ball that was soaked in a clear liquid around for you to see in his left hand--which was covered by multiple medical gloves--before dabbing it at your shin. It felt unnaturally cold on your skin, but it was almost soothing, like there was some kind of fiery fever in your skin that it was cooling. Once the cut was totally saturated in Holy Water, Ven gingerly began to heal a small area of it very carefully with his uncovered right hand. He had to work in incredibly small increments, only healing you with a single fingertip touch at a time, but it was at least some kind of progress towards getting you fixed up.

"Well, thanks for starting," you said, letting out a pained sigh as his fingers pressed into the injured and sensitive skin more forcefully. It definitely wasn't his usual brand of painless healing, that was for sure, but you were on your way to being normal again so you didn't want to complain.

"I'll try to be quick." He gave you a sympathetic smile, then returned his focus to your leg.

"Where's Zack?" you asked, looking around the room and noting his absence with a bit of worry.

"He's in the room across the hall, sleeping it off still. Typical Zack, right? Taking a nap when we need him," Gippal explained so Ven could keep working.

You laughed, then winced terribly as the laugher rattled around your ribcage and stomach, and made just about everything everywhere in your body hurt. It made you cough and swear, and you sank into bed feeling like you had suddenly aged ten years.

"Could you not, please?" Ven shot Gippal a look for joking and making you laugh as hard as he had.

"What? Laughter is the best medicine." Gippal shrugged defensively.

"Medicine is the best medicine!" Ven growled at him in a strained, exasperated tone, though he returned his eyes to his work.

"Is Zack still in a coma?" you asked, trying to break up the tension in the room even if your throat was begging for you to shut the fuck up and stop using it.

"Oh, you heard that?" Ven sighed, not looking up from your leg, but clearly paying attention.

"I guess. Bits and pieces," you said, trying to keep from wincing as he worked painfully on your shin. It didn't matter how gentle he was being, it still just kinda felt like he was digging around in the fresh injury.

"Yeah, he's still out. But I broke my spell on him, so he should be waking up on his own whenever he's ready. It's up to him now."

"And we all know how much he loves sleeping, so he's probably milking this nap for all it's worth," Gippal teased.

"Can I have some water?" you asked, feeling how dry and irritated your throat was. Swallowing was agony, but you were desperate for some water. It felt like you were back in the desert and had swallowed a gallon of sand that was drying you up from the inside.

"You sure you're up for a drink?" Ven asked, giving you a quick look over the brim of his glasses before returning his focus to your leg.

"Anything's gotta be better than the blood flavor I've got going on in my mouth right now." You nodded, and Ven gestured with his head for Gippal to go get you something to drink. Gippal went into the bathroom and you heard the sink run for a few seconds before he returned with a clear plastic cup.

"How are you doing?" Ven asked you in the meantime, and you tried to ignore the pain as best you could to sit up a little more so you could drink.

"It only hurts when I breathe." You gave a wry smile as you took the cup from Gippal, but Ven intercepted it and set it on his little tray of medical supplies so he could add a few drops of Holy Water to it.

"Ohhhh, now he's a caring professional who thinks of everything. I had to beg you to de-petrify my foot, but now you remember to dose up the drinking water?" Gippal complained as Ven handed the cup back to him, and he passed it along to you while still glaring at Ven. It tasted kind of funny, like it was surprisingly icy despite the normal temperature of the cup on your hand, and it was slightly sweet and tasted of chemicals, but it felt so soothing going down your throat you didn't even care. You swore you could feel the rush of cold liquid travel all the way down to your stomach, calming the pain of the poison as it went. Of course, the mere act of swallowing itself made the burns and cracks in your throat ache and scream out in pain, but it was dulled out almost as soon as it came on. That must have been why Ven made sure to add the Holy Water.

"That's because I didn't want to get anywhere near your stinking feet, stone or otherwise. Besides, look what you guys do to her. Someone needs to be looking out for her."

"Hey, you guys are the ones who fucked up her face." Gippal shot back, and you distinctly noted both of them looking up from their conversation to glance over at you again. It wasn't enough that your skin was still drained of all color and every vein was black and clearly visible below the surface of your skin, except in the areas around your eyes where your blood vessels had burst and had gone even blacker from the poison, making them look deeply sunken and corpse like. No, there were also various burns from fingerprints and your lips were an uncomfortable shade of purple and slightly blistered from drinking the potion. Not to mention the deep, bloody craters in your forehead that were some of the most painful things on your body right now besides your chest and leg, and the spot where the IV was.

"I kinda like it." Ven shrugged.

"Fuck off." You glared at him.

"I'm serious. I mean, don't get me wrong, it's horrible and I will do everything within my power to make it go away, but... it's a pretty good Halloween look for you. I gotta give it to Gippal, it does scream 'zombie.'"

"Oh, well in that case, leave it," you said sarcastically, taking another sip of water and wincing slightly as it went down before the Holy Water kicked in and the pain stopped.

"That's the spirit. You're too pretty for your own good without all the..." Gippal held a hand over your face and gestured around absently at all the damage while he tried to think of the right word, "gore."

"You're both dicks."

"Hey, at least you know we don't just like you for your looks. Otherwise, we'd be be running for the hill, screaming as we went." Ven smirked lightly, enjoying being able to pick on you again. It would be one thing if your situation was different, and you were permanently disfigured, but he was so confident he'd be able to get rid of all the marks that he felt okay making jokes about it. The fact he was teasing you for it was actually kind of reassuring, because you knew he'd only say something like that if he could fix you.

"Oh yeah? Come give the zombie a kiss then. Prove it," you challenged, and he laughed.

"You trying to make those lips look even deader? 'Cause I'll kiss you, Strife... but you're mouth is probably gonna burn off if I do," he replied with a smile so familiar that it almost made it feel like nothing had changed and you were back in your bedroom hanging out with him.

"Besides, weren't you just talking about having bloody zombie mouth?" Gippal eyed you with a raised brow and slightly disgusted look on his face.

"Come over here and find out." You glared at him.

"Alright, you've made your point. No need to work the zombie up into a tizzy." Ven stepped in to stop the game before anyone took it too far, and returned to his work on your shin.

"I'm not in a tizzy," you mumbled under your breath, and he shook his head.

"You were talking about kissing Gippal... I'd say you'd need to be pretty far gone to get to that point."

"Well... you got me there," you admitted, trying to adjust your back into the pillows in a new way that would be more comfortable. Your left hand had been tucked under the blankets this whole time, and you thought it was time to let your right arm rest so you'd stop irritating the tape over the IV in your elbow. You let out a strained breath as you brought your left hand over of the covers. Just moving your fingers around on that hand was incredibly painful. "Oh, shit..." you mumbled upon seeing it for the first time.

"Yeah, we have no idea what happened there... I didn't do it, and neither did Zack, as far as I can tell," Ven said looking up when he heard your breathing start to stagger.

"I know what happened," you sighed, turning your hand in front of your eyes so you could see the front and back. Your hand was wrapped tightly in cold, wet gauze to keep it fully saturated in Holy Water from the base of your wrist to your fingertips, "It's from when I killed the fiend that did all this to us. I knew that was White Magic. I knew it didn't feel right." You let your head fall to the side slightly as you examined the blackened skin that was peeking through the gauze. It didn't take long for the color and texture of the skin below to make you glad for all the bandages hiding it from view. It wasn't going to be pretty when they peeled them off to try and heal it.

"You did White Magic?" Ven asked, stopping his work again to give your hand another look, this time even more curiously, "That... certainly would explain it, but... how?"

"I don't know. I don't know what spell it was, either. It was like... if White Magic was Black Magic. That's the only way I think to describe it. Like, it was healing energy, but it was... compressed, almost. And violent, and totally unstable. It ripped through a fiend made of solid rock and bone like it was nothing. Tore it to shreds."

"What, like a... like a Holy spell?" Ven asked, shrugging and trying to figure out what you might have done.

"There's a holy spell? What the fuck are we using the water for, then?" Gippal shoved Ven a little, causing him to nearly slip off his chair.

"It's not a healing spell, it's purely offensive. It's a White Mage's last defense and only used to do damage. Holy is almost it's own elemental category that comes from bursts of strong waves of White Magic compressing in on themselves... like a black hole of White Magic, kind of. But..." He paused briefly, giving you a concerned look before admitting, "I can barely cast Holy."

"Well, maybe it's because it's an offense spell. Those are her specialty, right?" Gippal offered.

"...I guess...." Ven shook his head in disbelief, "But how do you even know how to compress magical energy like that?"  
You didn't have an answer for him.

"Can you do Flare? Or Ultima?" he asked after you shook your head at him.

"Just Flare," you said, knowing Ultima was still far beyond your abilities. You weren't even sure if Lulu and Aqua knew how to cast it. Or if they did, they never used it. It was kind of a Black Mage's last resort, like Holy was for people like Ven, apparently. It was the most violent and powerful spell a person could cast. You were honestly afraid to even attempt it.

"Oh yeah? Look at you." He chuckled lightly, giving you a mildly impressed smile, "Remember when we used to think you were bad at magic?" Ven mumbled as he continued to shake his head, then tried to make himself get back to work on your leg.

"How much longer do you think this is gonna take? I'm getting hungry," Gippal asked, leaning against the wall to watch Ven prod at your shin, sealing the cut up fractions of centimeters at a time. He was almost halfway done with it by now, but he had all of the rest of you to deal with, too. It was going to be a long night.

"Where are you planning on getting any food all the way out here?" Ven asked absently, like food wasn't really on his mind at all, but he was open to any conversation that wasn't about zombie injuries or about how close you came to dying just hours ago.

"Where are we?" you asked, putting your hand back under the covers and taking a look around the room again.

"Calm Lands Travel Agency," Ven answered for you while Gippal started to pace.

"We could make a quick Bevelle run," Gippal offered.

"You're not allowed in Bevelle." Ven sighed.

"Fine. Then a slow run to Luca."

"We shouldn't stay away that long."

"Then I could go alone."

"I don't think I'm allowed to send you off on your own. The three of you together is always trouble, but somehow it's always worse when you're alone."

"Can you guys stop talking about food?" you pleaded, feeling your stomach turn in a sick, nauseating way at the mention of food.

"You okay?" Ven asked, watching you from the corner of his eye while finishing up on the segment of your shin he just soaked in Holy Water.

"I don't feel so well..." you mumbled, suddenly feeling very dizzy and hot.

"Yeah, I don't imagine you do." Gippal almost laughed.

"No, I... bucket. Bucket!" You tried to sit up, feeling like you needed to puke right away. Gippal got the message loud and clear and grabbed the trash can Ven was tossing old cotton balls in and handed it to you not a second too soon. You almost pulled your IV out reaching for the trash can, then you buried your face in it while your body violently rejected the few sips of water you put in it. You thought the water hurt your throat going down, but this was nightmare levels of pain.

Gippal pulled a face and retreated a few steps away from you, but Ven got up from his chair to sit beside you in bed and pulled your hair back so it was out of the way with his gloved hand, being careful not to touch any part of your skin in the process.

"Come on, get it all out. You'll feel better when it's over," he said with a small sigh, then added, "I knew it was too soon to let you drink anything. I'm sorry."

"What's wrong with me?" you asked in a miserable tone when your insides finally stopped trying to be outsides.

"Just the perks of still being alive," he joked, and you whined a little as you felt more coming up.

Gippal turned around and tried to hum to distract himself, then when it was over he turned back to see Ven just playing with your hair and giving you a gentle rub on the back with his gloved hand like nothing had happened. "How does that not gross you out?"

"The human body is a vast and complex network of functions." Ven shrugged, taking the trash can from you once you began to sit back in bed again.

"It's a sewer," Gippal argued as Ven tied off the trash bag and held it out for him to take it.

"Your support means everything in these trying times," Ven said sarcastically as Gippal took the bag from him.

"Mind if I go check on Zack when I'm done?" Gippal asked, heading for the door.

"When have I ever cared what you do?" Ven smirked, and Gippal rolled his eyes before leaving the room. "How you doing, champ?" he asked you once it was just the two of you.

"Better. A little bit, anyway," you nodded as he helped you settle back into bed, then got a warm washcloth from the bathroom and used it to clean up your face a little. "How long do you think this zombie status is going to last? It's getting kind of old," you mumbled bitterly as he dabbed around your face with the soothing cloth.

"It's only been around two hours since I found you. I know it's a slow process and you're still in a lot of pain, but you're over the hump now. It shouldn't be too much longer." He tried to give you a reassuring smile as he returned to his chair by your bedside, but something about his expression had changed as soon as Gippal left the room and you were alone together again. "I'll up your dose of IV fluids to try and do something about that dehydration. Can I do anything else for you? Do you need anything?"

You thought for a second about asking him to move the IV so you could use your arm more comfortably, but then decided maybe you didn't want to trouble him, "No, I'm okay."

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈... let's not pretend you're okay right now. That's not a game I'm in the mood for tonight," he said a bit sternly, giving you a poignant look, "Now what do you need?"

"Can you..." You sighed a little, like it was hard for you to ask him for help somehow, "Can you move the IV, maybe? It's really bothering me where it is."

"Sure, of course I can." He nodded, reaching for the box of rubber gloves to cover up his right hand now, too, before getting up and looking for a new IV needle on his supply tray. It was easy to see why it might be bothering you, since you were moving around a fair amount and you were so sick and full of poison when he put it in the first time that it blistered and burned the skin of your elbow on contact. You weren't fully recovered yet, but at least his touch wasn't quite so deadly to you anymore, so he would probably be able to move it while only causing very little damage to you this time.

"I'm sorry. I just hate asking you for things. I don't need anything from you, I'm just happy you're here, you know?" you said while his back was turned to you. "I just... don't want it to seem like I take you for granted," you finally said, a little sheepishly.

"Take me for granted. It's why I'm here," he said as he took your arm and began to tap the back of your hand to try and make the veins stand out a little more. Even with the gloves on, your skin began to redden slightly, but it was nothing compared to the black and blistered skin of your elbow. You looked away while he slid the needle in, then clamped the IV tube before pulling it out of your elbow. You gritted your teeth and tried to distract yourself from the pain of the injured skin being messed with by talking.

"Are you gonna leave again as soon as this is over?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, and you felt like scoffing.

"You know what I mean."

"I really don't." He shrugged, still focusing far more on what he was doing than on your conversation.

"Well, you've been avoiding me..." You finally came right out and said it, and his whole posture seemed to tense up a little as he stopped what he was doing and gave you a bit of a hurt look. You tried to keep your eyes focused on his face, but you were starting to get extremely dizzy and lightheaded since throwing up.

"No I haven't. You're the one who hasn't wanted to see me."

"That's not true," you said quickly, and he suddenly looked very upset.

"Then why haven't you dropped by, or called, or--"

"You're the one who left! And the way you left... I wasn't sure you even wanted to see me. How could I just turn up to hang out after you took off like that? And now... and now you won't stop looking at me like that." You sighed, getting one last look in at him and seeing that guilty, hurt expression on his face again before your swaying, spinning vision finally got to be too much for you and you had to lay back in bed and close your eyes. This conversation had been a little too much excitement for you, apparently, but the sorrowful look he was giving you was plainly clear even with your blurry tunnel-vision.

"How am I supposed to look at you after I held your head in my lap and saw you look to me for help as you gasped your last breath? After I tried everything to bring you back and still wasn't successful? After realizing the only reason you finally came back to me and took the second first breath of your life wasn't because of anything I did for you? It was all my fault, and geostigma is the only reason you're still with us. It is all I can see when I look at you," he explained in a low voice with a tone that was far more serious than anything you had ever heard from him.

"It wasn't your fault. None of this is anyone's fault. It was just an accident. A bad accident that none of us saw coming. I don't blame you, and I certainly don't want you to beat yourself up over any of this. I don't care who saved me, or how. I'm just happy to be alive, and okay, and to have you here. Why can't you see that when you look at me?"

"Bad eyesight." He sighed, running a hand through his hair and messing it up a little as he settled back in the chair and brought the tray with all the cotton balls and Holy Water vials up to your hip level, and then he began to work to heal the skin over your elbow.

"Nice excuse." You rolled your eyes, but tried not to be too hard on him. You knew he was in a tight spot, and was just trying to deal with it as best he could. Things between you were messy and muddled up already, and now he was shaken to the core from your more than a little traumatic reunion. It was hard to even imagine what was going on in his head right now, but you just wished he would have been even half as happy to see you as you had been when you saw him. Maybe he was, but then everything happened too fast for him to be able to express any of those feelings. But you'd never know.

"You know, the worst thing is for a while we were worried we'd need to give you blood transfusions if I couldn't get the bleeding on your injuries to stop in time. Even now, your blood pressure is so low I can see you getting light headed every time you sit up." He sighed a little as he saw your eyes struggling to stay focused on him as he spoke now, "With the stigma, even if someone is a perfect blood match to you, the mutated blood cells flowing through your veins would attack it and destroy the new cells. The only person who could give you blood is me, but with zombie status, if we tried that I would have killed you a second time. I had to make files for almost everyone in the school, with blood types and allergy lists for all of them, so that in case of emergency I would have a plan and know exactly what to do. But with you, every backup plan I ever made so that I never find anyone in a life or death situation just went right out the window. I've been trying so hard to keep everything just right, so there's no chance I'll ever hurt you... but everything I do just ends up making it worse. Now it's like I don't even know how to stop hurting you."

"That's the Strife charm. We're a giant monkey wrench thrown into everyone's plans, always. No matter how much planning or how thoughtful anyone else is, we're just gonna do things our way. And, in case you were wondering, the Rostar charm is being super melancholy all the goddamn time... except for Sora. His charm is being the only ray of sunshine coming out of those storm clouds of yours." You smiled to yourself a little as you said it, and he gave you a tired look. You decided to cut him a break and said, "Add Riku to my emergency plan."

"What?" He looked at you cluelessly.

"If something like this ever happens again, Riku could give me blood. His father had Geostigma, and he has the genes for it, too. It's not active in him, but his blood cell should be able to handle the stigma, right? It should have some kind of trace of stigma, even if it's not active, so my blood shouldn't attack his, right? Or it will at least be somewhat more resistant."

Ven didn't say anything, but got a look on his face like he understood what you had said even if it took him a second to process it. He nodded, but he didn't look particularly reassured.

"There's your backup plan, so stop worrying so much," you said, feeling slightly bad about outting Riku's secret like that, but you were sure, given the circumstances, that he wouldn't mind that you did, and you knew Ven would keep his secret. "Listen, I know none of this was easy for you, and it was way more than you bargained for, but I really don't blame you for anything. In fact, I'm grateful you're here right now."

"I wish I could--" The door opened and GIppal cut him off as he walked in the room.

"Hey, so Zack's still super passed out. Can we revisit the 'f-o-o-d' issue?"

"... I can still spell, you colossal jackass..." You glared at Gippal as he burst back into the room completely unannounced.

"Good for you. Vennybear?" Gippal shot him a look as he strode over to your bedside and tried to see what Ven was up to. He was still healing your arm up, and it looked like it would be a slow and painstaking process.

Ven looked at you for your answer, and you shrugged.

"Go. You look tired, anyway. You should take a break."

"That's just how his face is," Gippal sassed, reaching for the IV bag that was full of Holy Water and fluids and trying to give it a squeeze to see if that would help speed up the healing process, but Ven slapped his hand away before he could touch it.

"Are you sure? I don't mind staying," Ven said, still wrestling with Gippal to keep him from messing with you.

"Yeah, go take care of Gippal. Otherwise you'll have him to worry about on top of Zack and me. But can I stay in Zack's room?" you asked, thinking you were probably in too much pain to go back to sleep, and didn't just want to sit alone in the dreary room full of medical supplies.

"Are you up for moving around?" Ven asked warily, and you nodded despite both of you knowing it was a bold faced lie. You sat up and tried to pull your knees over the side of the bed, but it was more than a bit of a struggle for you. Ven helped pull the blankets away, and Gippal caught you when you almost stumbled back into bed after trying to stand up and everything went black for a few seconds. He scooped you up before you even had a chance to try walking by yourself again, and carried you out of the room while Ven trailed behind closely with his chair and the IV stand.

Zack's room across the hall was dark and quiet, and he was fast asleep on the bed, which pressed against the wall on the far side of the room. He looked totally peaceful and almost like he was just having a dreamy nap, like nothing had even happened. At least, that's what you thought until you got a little closer to the bed and saw the scratches on his cheek and the same pale discoloration of his skin that let his veins show through his face clearly. It was shocking to see it on yourself, but somehow seeing it on him, and seeing that tan skin and smiling face disfigured like that was far harder for you to stomach.

"He should be waking up soon, so maybe you'll even have some company," Ven said as he positioned the chair he was dragging along behind him at Zack's bedside, then Gippal lowered you into it.

"Though knowing Zack, he'll sleep till noon and there's nothing we can do about it." Gippal smirked knowingly at Zack as he slept.

"What time is it, anyway?" you asked them, tearing your eyes away from the cuts on Zack's face to look back at Ven.

Ven pulled out his phone to do a time check for you, and you saw he had a slew of missed calls and messages that he was perfectly content ignoring as he answered, "A little past three in the morning."

"Where are you going to get food?" you asked, wondering if anything would even be open at this hour.

"We'll find a Chocobo Hut or something. I'll bring you a breakfast burrito." Gippal gave your hair a tussle before making for the door.

"Make it an egg McMoogle muffin and some hashbrowns, and you're on." You smirked at him, and he returned your smile a little before exiting, like he was secretly relieved to have you back to your normal self after such a bad scare. Food was the farthest thing from your mind at the moment, but you knew it would reassure him to hear you were feeling up to eating even if you weren't.

"Call me if you need anything. We'll be back soon, then I'm not leaving you alone again until we get you put back together," Ven said, double checking something on your IV before giving you one last look in the eye and adding, "I'll be there for you from now on. I promise."

"Go. Don't worry about me," you said, trying to urge him to get going already, since it was starting to get a little unbearable to have him constantly looking at you like he desperately wanted to reach over and fix everything but just couldn't, "Have a rest on the way, while you're at it. For me."

He gave you a forced half-smile and repeated the phrase he liked to use whenever you wanted him to do something he didn't really want to do, like when you asked him to reconnect with Roxas back in Traverse Town, "Anything for you, kid."

He turned and left after that, knowing Gippal would throw a fit if he didn't pick up the pace. You turned back to Zack and let out a small sigh as silence fell over the room now that it was just the two of you.

Minutes passed slowly in the darkness, but it was calm and it was quiet so you felt a little relieved to have some time to yourself to reflect on what you were going through. You were in a fair amount of pain still, but you were an expert at pain management now and could deal with that. However, emotionally, you were kind of reeling. It all felt a little too surreal to you still. One minute you were exploring the ruins and everything was fine, then that guy showed up and you followed him deeper into the ruins than you ever should have gone. Then everything turned on its head when that ancient fiend appeared. It happened so fast, and you hadn't really taken any time to slow down and process everything until now. Even when Ven was telling you about what happened, you were so concerned with his reaction to everything that you hadn't really stopped to think about how you were feeling. For all your confidence and all your power, you still almost died tonight. In fact, according to Ven, you had died. You didn't really know how to feel about that, and, honestly, thinking about it too hard scared you more than you cared to admit.

You looked back over at Zack and tried to push those thoughts from your mind, and you began to wonder just how well Gippal was coping with the two of you being injured. When they first brought you in and you were unconscious and then Zack got put into a comatose state, it must have been really lonely and scary for him. Especially since the two of you were normally so animated and talkative. Seeing Zack just laying there, totally unresponsive and quiet, was a little hard to take.

His hand was resting at his side out of the blankets with an IV stuck in the front of his elbow, and you distinctly noted the imprints of fingers burned into the skin around the needle. Ven must have done that, you thought, and you began to wonder what might have happened if you and Gippal had switched roles. If it had been Gippal who got hurt instead, would you have been able to help Ven with treatments? With laying IVs and cleaning up blood around open wounds?

Probably not.

"Zack?" You tried to call out his name quietly to see if you could wake him, but he seemed completely unperturbed. Silence fell over the room again, and you sighed a little before wondering how long it would take Gippal and Ven to get back.

Shortly after, boredom began to get the better of you, and you decided to see if you could touch Zack's hand without it hurting you as a way to test how much zombie poison was still in your system. Zack was a pretty poor White Mage, so his skin only gave off very minor charges of healing energy naturally. Still, even so, when the poison was raging through you full force, just that little bit of energy was enough to brand your stomach with a nasty imprint of his forearm, and his fingerprints were burned into your skin all over. You reached for his hand, ghosting your fingers over his skin anxiously for a moment in anticipation for any kind of sting or burn you might experience, but when you finally decided to just do it and let your hand rest on top of his, you were relieved that it didn't hurt. Not even a little bit. Ven said the magic he used to cut off Zack's magic would be wearing off any minute now, but you couldn't tell if he was still cut off from his magic or if you were healed enough not to be bothered by it. His skin was warm to the touch, but it wasn't because of any nefarious reaction you were having to his healing abilities, or because he was feverish. It was just him. You smiled a little to yourself, feeling a little bit comforted by the fact that despite the scrapes and the plaid look of his skin, he was still the toasty, sweet puppy of a boy he always was. You snuck your hand under his to hold it properly and let out a contented breath. It really wasn't hurting you. You were getting better. You would get over this, and so would he. It was going to be alright.

"Please wake up, Zack. I miss you." You called to him again in a voice barely above a whisper, giving his hand a squeeze, but it was no use.

You sat in the dark room for ages before your thoughts finally got the better of you. They were just bouncing around in your head so fast that it was hard to keep track of anything, so you decided to pull out your journal and try writing some things down once you saw your backpack was stashed in this room among Zack and Gippal's things. It was like they dumped all medical equipment into your room and all the personal belongings the three of you had on you into Zack's room. It had been awhile since you had written anything in the journal, but it felt surprisingly good to get your thoughts laid out in front of you on paper. It became much easier to process everything that had happened, and you kind of got on a roll and wrote over 6 pages before you finally felt so tired you almost collapsed from sheer exhaustion.

Ven and Gippal got back in a little less than an hour, and they found you slumped over in your chair, asleep with your head resting on the bed by Zack's side.

"Aww, sleeping like little angels." Gippal cooed over the two of you, but Ven just sighed and shook his head.

"He's still comatose, and ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈'s syncope finally caught up with her."

"Her what?"

"She passed out from low blood pressure. She lost too much, and needs blood." He sighed again, after giving your wrist a quick medcheck and distinctly noticing the redness that still followed from his touch. "We should get her back to her own bed so she can rest."

As Gippal sat you up in the chair properly, Ven saw the open journal sitting in your lap and took it so it wouldn't fall when Gippal scooped you up and began to move you back to your room. He didn't mean to read any of it, but when he saw his name had popped up on the page several times he couldn't help himself.

Once you were settled back into your own bed and Gippal had tucked you in and they got you sleeping soundly again, Ven sent Gippal away to get some sleep of his own while he took his usual seat by your bedside and started to read what you had written in your journal.

His eyes followed the lines on the page guiltily, like he knew he shouldn't be doing this but just couldn't tear his eyes away either. This might be the only time he would ever have the chance to know exactly what you were thinking, and, after the rift that had come between the two of you, he was slightly desperate to know what was going on inside your head. Your handwriting was slanted and a bit all over the place, though that was probably a result of your dizziness and the pain medication he had you on making it impossible to see straight. Even though any normal person would have quit and gone to bed after realizing they could barely hold a pen, you had written a miniature novel in the time it took for them to get back from their food run. The first few pages of the latest entry you had written were attempts to wrap your head around everything. You had written a playback of events as you remembered them, and were trying to make sense of everything. He thought you were handling things pretty well, considering, even though it was clear you were still shaken by it and deeply afraid about not being able to get back to normal. You were also surprisingly concerned about Zack and Gippal, and worried how the three of you were going to be able to move on from this without any kind of post traumatic stress every time you found yourselves faced with an unfamiliar enemy.

Then Ven finally got to the part you had written about him. His heart began to speed up as he read:

'If there's one good thing about everything that happened tonight, it's that Ven finally came back... even if it was just to do his job. It's frustrating, though. I don't know if he would have even bothered trying to talk to me again if we hadn't been attacked. It's been ages and he hasn't even tried talking to me. Then he had the nerve to say that I was the one who had been avoiding talking to him. He's the one who left! I know it's childish, but I don't care. If he wanted to come back, he could have. He didn't. It's not my job to go chasing after someone who has made it so clear they want some distance. I know he didn't want to go, but it doesn't exactly feel like he wanted to come back, either. It just goes to show I trust people too easily. I can't even count the number of times I fell to pieces in front of him. I told him everything, always, and really thought he was the only person in the world who could ever understand me. But that was stupid. I should have realized it was all business to him. I thought he was my closest friend, but I guess being a good shoulder to lean on is just a trait he picked up from the job. He never talked about any of his own problems, or anything that he was going through. He never told me anything about himself that wasn't strictly relevant to having geostigma, and even then he still hasn't told me anything. Like who the FUCK is Vanitas, and what the hell happened to him in Midgar? If he got some kind of stigma treatment, why aren't they telling me about it? Even if it didn't work, I'd still like to know! It's like he doesn't think I care about him at all. Like he thinks he was never really my friend. Maybe he wasn't. He certainly seemed perfectly content to leave me out in the dark on things. Tonight, he promised he'd always be there for me, but I know that's a lie. That's what people always say right before they leave. I don't know what's worse: the things he said, or the things he didn't say.'

It went on like that for a while, until it seemed like you worked out a good bit of your frustration. His stomach was in knots that seemed to get worse with each word he read, but after a while it seemed like you were finally talking yourself into coming to terms with things. After a few more paragraphs of venting about him, there was a large break in the page that was followed by much neater writing, like you had stopped ranting and resumed with carefully thought out writing,

'I don't know, maybe I'm overthinking things. I know it's not fair for me to be so hard on him. We're all just doing the best we can. I need to remember that none of this has been easy on him either, and that the stigma isn't just a burden of mine. He can be so quiet about his own problems that sometimes I forget he's suffering, too. For all the problems we have, and for as hard as today was, I can at least say I'm glad for the chance to set things right and try to get back to normal. Even if it hurts, and even if it's never the same, I hope we can still try.'

It was nothing he didn't already know, or couldn't see by looking at the expressions on your face when you spoke to him, but, still... somehow seeing it all written out like this made it so much worse. Like it had validated every anxious thought he ever had about what you must have thought about him after he left. He closed the journal and set it on the nightstand beside you, not wanting to read any further. All he wanted to do now was talk to you, to try to explain himself, but you were finally sleeping soundly.

With a sigh, he got to his feet and began to add more holy water to your IV bag, thinking a little pain relief was the least he could do for you after everything that had happened tonight. He pulled out his phone, thinking it was high time to call Riku and have him come give you a blood transfusion, trying to take any steps he could to get you back to normal so everyone could just put all this behind them.

He dialed Sora's number, knowing Riku and Roxas would be dead asleep and wouldn't answer him at this time of night. He wasn't even sure if Sora would, but the line only rang three times before Sora's sleepy voice picked up on the other line.

"Ugh.... hello?" Sora grumbled tiredly into the phone, cearly running a hand over his face to try and wake up, muffling himself in the process.

"Hey, Sora. It's Ven... sorry for calling so late." Ven began quietly as to not wake you up, but Sora gasped upon hearing that it was Ven's voice on the other line.

"Ventus? What is it? Did something happen?" Sora suddenly sounded like he was wide awake. It seemed like he thought Ven would never call him unless it was an emergency, which, to be fair, was technically true in this case.

"Yeah... something happened." He hung his head, looking at your sleeping face as he sank back into his chair at your bedside. He couldn't even begin to explain everything. "I need you to wake Riku up, and get him to meet me down at the Travel Agency in the Calm Lands."

"Riku? Why do you need Riku? What happened? Is it serious?" Sora was still pretty groggy, but he was working himself up a bit more than Ven cared for at the moment.

"Could you... maybe not ask questions right now? Just get Riku down here as quickly as you can. There's been a bad fiend attack, and he's a blood match for one of the victims," Ven said, knowing full well what a panic it would send his brothers and probably Riku himself into if they knew you were hurt.

"Yeah... yeah, okay. We're coming," Sora said and Ven heard a clicking sound on the other line that must have been Sora turning on the lights, because he heard angry grumbling from Riku and Roxas moments later, "We'll do our best to hurry."

Sora hung up the phone, leaving Ven to sit in the deafening silence of your dark room again.

∞

Your eyes slowly began to open despite the weight of your heavy lids, and it took a moment to realize where you were. You groaned slightly as the events of last night came flooding back to you, and with them came the pain from all the injuries you had sustained. The fact it still hurt must have meant you still weren't in the clear and free from the fiend's poison, and that Ven hadn't been able to heal you yet. Still, you felt at least a little bit better. Stronger, maybe.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈? Are you awake?" A gentle voice called your name, and you let your head fall to the side so you could see the chair by your bedside where Ven was usually sitting. Only you realized it wasn't Ven sitting there this time.

"Riku?" you mumbled in confusion, trying to shake the hair out of your eyes and blinking several times like you were trying to discern if he was really there or just some hallucination you were having. "What are you doing here?"

"You had me worried for a second there, you know that?" Riku smiled softly at you and leaned forward in the chair so he could brush the hair in your face aside for you since your head shake didn't really do anything.

"Worried? What for? I'm great," you said, and he laughed.

"Yeah, you're right, I don't know what I was thinking. You always look half dead. It was silly of me."

"You're always silly." You smirked at him weakly, then noticed there was a crimson tube sticking out of his arm. You followed the tube with your eyes up to the IV drip stand, where you saw it was connected to a bag of blood. There was another bag attached to the stand on a hook much higher up that was connected to you, and you suddenly understood what was happening.

"Hey, Ven actually listened to me," You chimed happily, smiling as best as your cracked and blistered lips would let you, and Riku shook his head at you.

"If only you'd listen to me, and keep out of trouble."

"I don't think you've ever said that," You mumbled, and he gave an incredulous laugh.

"I say that every single day. Just look at the things you get yourself into." He said, his soft smile twisting with a bit of concern as he looked over the marks on your face.

"What, this? This is nothin'." Your speech was slurred slightly from the grogginess and the pain medication you were on, but if anything that just added to the comedic effect of your statement.

"Oh yeah? Should I see the other guy?" He raised an eyebrow at you, and you nodded lazily before letting your eyes close and your head relax back into the pillow. "You okay?"

You mumbled an incoherent sentence in which he could only make out the word, "Tired."

"Do you want to go back to sleep?" he asked, and you shook your head though your eyes remained firmly shut. "Do you want me to wake Ven up?"

"Where is he?" You forced your eyes to open again so you could look around the room, but it was definitely just the two of you.

"He's right there, sleeping. Do you need him?" Riku gestured with his head to the foot of the bed, where Ven was folded forward in his chair with his head resting on his forearms. Maybe it wasn't just the two of you. Maybe you were still just as out of it as the last time you were awake.

"No," you let your eyes fall back on Riku, who was still looking at you with a strange mix of relief and discomfort, "I'm okay. Just cold."

"Yeah, you look okay." He rolled his eyes lightly, but he grabbed the jacket off the back of his chair and placed it over your chest and shoulders gently. He even stood up to make sure he got the jacket tucked up all nice and cozy around your face.

"You know, I don't care for your tone," you grumbled, nestling your cheek into the soft fabric and inhaling the softly sweet, masculine smell that you could place anywhere as being Riku. He adjusted it so the jacket was more of a pillow for you on that side, then he stood up straight again to give your condition another quick assessment before sitting down. As he reached full height, he had to stop and blink several times before slowly lowering himself down into the chair again with a hand held up to his face. Clearly he was feeling the effects of losing as much blood as he had in order to give it to you.

"Too bad. You're stuck with me," he said, and you gave the blood bag hanging above you another look.

"Oh no, am I gonna catch your sarcasm?"

"Go back to sleep, asshole." He laughed as he grabbed a banana off the nightstand beside you that you didn't remember being there when you went to sleep. He didn't feel much like eating, but Ven had been pretty clear with him that he needed to eat if he started getting light headed.

"How long have you been here?" you asked, trying to push yourself up into a seated position, but you probably didn't even manage to get your head a few inches higher on your pillow. Riku watched you trying to move around stiffly with a small frown, then when you caught him staring he turned his gaze back to his lap and continued peeling the banana.

"About an hour. Ven filled me in a little bit about what happened while he was hooking me up to you, then he fell asleep after monitoring the transfusion for a little while. He didn't tell me everything, though." He looked up at you again and sighed, knowing you'd get annoyed with him but still asking anyway. "≈≈≈≈≈≈≈, what happened to you?"

You didn't get annoyed though. You just got very quiet, and stared at the ceiling with a slightly clenched jaw.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?"

"We were set up," you finally said, sounding bitter and angry.

"Set up? What do you mean? Who set you up?"

"I don't know. He's after Lulu though, and he's trying to get to her by using me."

"....What are you talking about?" That certainly wasn't the answer he was expecting.

"See my journal, there?" you said, looking at the brown leatherbound book on the nightstand, "Open the back cover."

He did as you instructed, and found a torn out page that was folded up and stuck between the back cover and the last page. He opened it and saw in Lulu's handwriting 'Research Notes, volume VII' then below that, written in slanted red ink in handwriting he didn't recognize, the words 'thanks for the intel' were scrawled. "I don't understand. What is this?" he asked, looking up from the torn page to you.

"Lulu gave me the journal she used to document her most recent trip to Midgar to read the night she got back during the training camp week. Not even an hour after she gave it to me, I had a run in with this guy... I thought he was one of the instructors, and didn't question it when he said he wanted to do an early skill evaluation on me. Turns out while he was distracting me with that, he had helpers going through the journal. When it was over, he disappeared and only left me with that ominus note to remember him by. I knew it would come back to bite me, I just didn't think it would happen like this."

"I still don't get it. What does this guy have to do with a fiend attack?"

"We only encountered that fiend after I saw that man again. We were exploring the Zanarkand ruins when I caught sight of him, and we followed him into the ruins deeper than we ever should have gone. He was luring me into a trap, and I fell for it. Again."

"You're sure it was the same guy?"

"Positive. I'd never forget his face. He looks..." You began, then stopped as you realized what you were about to say.

"What?" Riku tried to press you, but you shook your head. "≈≈≈≈≈≈, what is it?" He reached for your hand and gave it as light of a squeeze of encouragement.

You had to drop your eyes from his and shook your head again like you couldn't believe you were really going to say it, "He kind of looks like you."

"... What... ?" He blurted bluntly, genuinely clueless about what you might have meant by that.

"I mean, not exactly like you. Like I didn't think it was you out there and I was trying to chase you down. But, you know, there are... similarities. Silver hair, same skin tone, blue eyes with a ring of green."

"You got close enough to see a ring of color in his eyes?" He looked at you skeptically, but something in his expression and posture also told you he was nervous.

"Well, not this time. But I'd never forget his face, I know it was him. I'm sure of it."

"Have you told Lulu about this man?"

"No. I haven't told anyone besides Axel and Roxas. The night I got that note in the journal, Axel helped me look around for where the man might have gone after he disappeared, then I told Roxas about it later. Zack and Gippal just followed him because I wanted to know what he was up to. They still have no idea this might not have been an accident."

"Do you know anything else about this guy, or who he might be?"

"I have no idea. I'm gonna have to tell Lulu, though. He's dangerous."

Ven began to stir down at the foot of the bed, and he looked over at you with sleepy, half-open eyes, "Who's dangerous?"

"No one you need to worry about," you said, seeing how tired he looked and deciding this wasn't something he needed to be concerned about on top of everything else right now.

"What are you telling Lulu?" he asked after a small yawn snuck up on him as he tried to sit up straight in his chair again.

"Later. Is she okay?" Riku interrupted his line of questioning with a kind of definitive tone Ven was too tired to argue with. He was still holding your hand, and his fingers curled around yours ever so slightly tighter.

"Ask her that. I can't tell you anything," Ven said, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand to try and wake himself up a little bit more.

"Really? That's the best you've got?" Riku glared at him a little bit.

"You can be so serious sometimes, you know that?" Ven ignored his glare and leaned his elbow on the bed by your hip so he could rest his cheek on his fist while he looked at you, "Go on then, ace. Give us a full update."

"What doesn't hurt is numb, and I think my feet are frozen," you said, at least trying to be more honest with him.

"Yeah, that's about what I expec––wait, are you cold?" He needed a little longer than usual to process things, but he was still at least trying to give you his full attention.

"Riku's just cold blooded, I bet," you said, giving Riku a small smirk as he turned his glare on you next.

"It would have been truly tragic if you had lost your sense of humor in the fight."

"No, it's a sign his blood's not quite doing the trick for you anymore..." Ven sighed as he got to his feet and made for the small closet in the corner of the room and pulled out an extra blanket from it. He began to spread the blanket over you as he explained, "Your stigma cells are finally destroying more of his blood cells than they're letting stay in your system. You're cold because you're not getting enough blood."

"Oh... well that sucks..." you mumbled, exchanging a look with Riku. He met your mildly disappointed shrug with an extremely concerned look.

"It does, but I knew it was just a matter of time before the stigma cells learned how to fight off the new blood more efficiently," Ven said as he went about his business checking the blood bag on the IV tower that was connected to you as he asked, "How long was I out?"

"Maybe thirty minutes," Riku answered and Ven sighed.

"Wow. All that work and all it did was buy me thirty minutes... great," he grumbled, doing something to the blood bag before returning to his seat.

"Is she gonna be okay?" Riku asked, clearly unsatisfied with both of your attitudes at the moment.

"Would you relax? I'm just a little chilly," you said, and Riku gave you a dry look.

"You wanna repeat that? I couldn't hear you over all the gravel it sounds like you swallowed."

"Don't worry. She'll be okay. We can't get her out of critical condition until the holy water clears out all the poison, but she's stable for now. That's about all we could have hoped for, anyway."

"Just make Riku give me more blood, or get Gippal in here to squeeze the bag. You know he wants to," you said, and Riku gave you a dead eyed glare.

"If you weren't one foot in the grave already I would punch you," he said, and you couldn't quite tell if he was joking or not.

"Please don't punch the zombie." Ven sighed at him.

Just then, you heard the sounds of Gippal and Roxas' voices outside the door.

"Gippal? What are you doing here? Is that blood!?" You heard Roxas saying in a voice that was getting louder and more concerned with every word.

"Uhhh, it's... not... blood?" Gippal replied, not convincing in the slightest, "It's... ketchup."

"Did something happen to your team? Where are ≈≈≈≈≈≈≈ and Zack?" Roxas sounded angry now, like he knew he was being jerked around and wasn't very happy about it.

"They're back in our room, sleeping. We're just passing through here, nothing happened. Just a messy breakfast."

"Ven called us here in the middle of the night for an emergency. What's going on? What happened to you? Your arm's all cut up." Roxas shot back.

"I walked into a door." Gippal said calmly, then a more panicked "Don't go in there!" slipped out of him.

The door briefly opened a few inches before it was yanked shut again from the outside.

"Who's in there?"

"I don't know. Some other guest at the agency, I guess. Don't disturb them."

"Why's the door open then? Why were you reaching for the doorknob when I walked out?"

"Spirains are known for their terrible senses of security. I'm a... pick pocket now?"

"Move!"

"Hey, I thought you were the nice Rostar!"

"Gippal!"

"What? Would you chill out?"

"What's going on!?" Roxas half-yelled, and this time the door flew open before Gippal had a chance to stop it this time. Roxas came barreling into the room with a harsh, glaring expression on his face that turned to stone cold horror as he took in the scene before him.

You, Riku, and Ven were all staring at him with vacant expressions, and Gippal stumbled into the room behind him to shut the door before Roxas could do anymore yelling. Gippal put a hand on Roxas' shoulder to stop his from getting closer, Ven got to his feet, Riku let go of your hand so he could turn around in his chair, and Roxas' eyes fell on you with a kind of wide-eyed terror that felt worse than any of your injuries.

"≈≈≈≈≈≈≈?" Roxas' eyes were glued to you, and his tone of voice was hard to listen to, "What happened to you?"

"I walked into the same door as Gippal." You shrugged meekly, and Roxas shook his head in utter disbelief.

"It's a killer." Gippal added, helping nothing.

Roxas shuffled further into the room looking like he was in a daze. He dropped to his knees by your bedside between Riku's chair and the night stand and just stared at you while trying to find anything to say or to ask that could make any of this make sense to him. Eventually he just had to tear his eyes away from you and look at Ven for answers.

"Why don't we talk outside?" Ven finally said after a few tense and silent moments of everyone turning to stare at him. No one wanted to do any explaining or justifying right now, but there really wasn't any way to play this off casually. Ven and Roxas walked out of the room, and Ven adopted that very gentle, doctorly tone he always used when talking to your parents as he led the way into the hall.

"Well... I just came by to say goodnight, but I see I've gotten into bit of mischief here." Gippal gave a guilty smirk and rubbed the back of his head.

"It's fine. Just... good night, Gippal. See you in the morning." You did your best to smile at him, and he nodded in appreciation at the effort before ducking out of the room.

"Try not to die overnight."

"That's not funny. Get out of here." Riku called after Gippal as he left.

"Relax, he means well. Besides, he's not the one who really stepped in it tonight." You sighed lightly as the door closed and you were able to sink back into bed to try and rest.

"You okay?" He asked, doing what he could to help tuck you in and make you as comfortable as possible.

"Not really. It's just... how am I gonna explain any of this to Roxas?"

"Ven will take care of that."

"Oh, he's definitely going to have some words for me when this is all over. It's like I can't stop fucking up. Or getting fucked up. He's going to be sure to bring that up, no matter what Ven says to him."

"This wasn't your fault."

"Nothing ever is." You shook your head a little, thinking that you had been using that as an excuse quite a lot lately, "The stigma, the fiend hunting, getting lost at sea, this... I'm the one at the center of all of these problems, maybe it is my fault."

"I don't believe that."

"Lucky you."

"Hush, you. I'll get Roxas to save his lecture for another day. You just focus on getting some sleep."

"Thanks. You're a good friend... when you're not, you know, being a sarcastic ass all the time." You grinned at him lightly as he reached for the lamp on the nightstand.

"Sarcastic asses in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Now go to bed." He smirked, giving you a knowing look before turning out the light. "We'll get you through this, ≈≈≈≈≈≈. I promise."

You would hopefully wake up cured from whatever poison this was and they would be able to heal you, and you could put this whole night behind you.

**∞**

**Anyone who made it to the end in one sitting without dying gets a free chocobuck!**


End file.
